^ 



CONSTITUTION OF MAN 



CONSIDERED IN 



RELATION TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 



BY 

GEORGE COMBE. 



w Vain is the ridicule with which one foresees some persons will 
divert themselves, upon finding lesser pains considered as, instances 
of divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or evading 
the general tldng here intended, without denying all final causes." — 
Butler's Analogy. 




PHILADELPHIA: 

CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFIKGER, 

819 & 821 MARKET STREET. 

1872. 



X 



A^ 



PREFACE.* 

Thts Essay would not have been presented to the Public, nad 1 no< 
believed that it contains views of the constitution, condition and 
prospects of Man, which deserve attention ; but these, I trust, are not 
ushered forth with anything approaching to a presumptuous spirit. 
I la/ no claim to originality of conception. My first notions of the 
aatural laws were derived from a manuscript work of Dr. Spurzheim, 
with the perusal of which I was honored in 1824. This work was after- 
wards published under the title of" A Sketch of the Natural I,aws of 
Man, by G. Spurzheim, M. D." A comparison of the text of it with 
that of the following pages, will show to what extent I am indebted to 
my late excellent and lamented master and friend for my ideas on this 
subject. All my inquiries and meditations since have impressed me 
more and more with a conviction of their importance. The materials 
employed lie open to all. Taken separately, I would hardly say that 
a new truth has been presented in the following work. The parts 
have all been admitted and employed again and again, by writers on 
morals, from Socrates down to the present day. In this respect, there 
is nothing new under the sun. The only novelty in this Essay re- 
spects the relations which acknowledged truths hold to each other. 
Physical laws of nature, affecting our physical condition, as well as 
regulating the whole material system of the universe, are universally 
acknowledged, and constitute the elements of natural philosophy and 
chemical science. Physiologists, medical practitioners, and all who 
take medical aid, admit the existence of organic laws ; And the sciences 
of government, legislation, education, indeed our whole train of con- 
duct through life, proceed upon the admission of laws in morals. 
Accordingly, the laws of nature have formed an interesting subject oi 
inquiry to philosophers of all ages ; but, so far as I am aware, no 
author has hitherto attempted to point out, in a combined and system- 
atic form, the relations between these laws and the constitution of 
Man; which must, nevertheless, be done, before our knowledge of 
them can be beneficially applied : nor has any preceding author unfold- 
ed the independent operation of the several natural laws, and the 
practical consequences which follow from this fact. The great object 
of the following Essay is to exhibit these relations and consequences 
with a view to the improvement of education, and the regulation of in- 
dividual and national conduct. 

* The author of" The Constitution of Man," says little or nothing 
in his preface to the last edition, of its being considerably enlarged", 
such is the fact. Its value, therefore, is greatly increased ; this cir- 
cumstance, alone, should ensure for it an extensive circulation : it it 
but fair to suppose, that his additional writings, are, at least, as valu- 
able as the original matter ; and of the value of that matter, testimony 
is found, in the large editions which have been called for ; both in thit 
•ountry and in Europe. 



IV PREFACE. 

But although my purpose is practical, a theory of Mind forms as 
essential element in the execution of the plan. Without it, no com. 
parison can be instituted between the natural constitution of man and 
external oojects. Phrenology appears to me to be the clearest, most 
complete, and best supported system of Human Nature, which has 
hitherto been taught ; and I have assumed it as the basis of this 
Essay. But the practical value of the views now to be unfolded does 
not depend entirely on Phrenology. The latter, as a theory of Mind 
is itself valuable, only in so far as it is a just exposition of what pre- 
viously existed in human nature. We are physical, organic, and 
moral beings, acting under the sanction of general laws, whether the 
connection of different mental qualities with particular portions of the 
brain, as taught by Phrenology, be admitted or denied. Individuals, 
under the impulse of passion, or by the direction of intellect, will hope, 
fear, wonder, perceive, and act, whether the degree in which they habit- 
ually do so be ascertainable by the means which it points out or not 
In so far, therefore, as this Essay treats of the known qualities of Man, 
it may be instructive even to those who contemn Phrenology as un- 
founded ; while it can prove useful to none, if the doctrines which it 
unfolds shall be fouaid not to be in accordance with the principles of 
human nature, by whatever system these may be expounded. 

Some individuals object to all mental philosophy as useless, and 
argue, that, as Mathematics, Chemistry, and Botany, have become 
great sciences, without the least reference to the faculties by means of 
which they are cultivated, so Morals, Religion, Legislation and Politi- 
cal Economy have existed, been improved, and may continue to ad- 
vance with equal success, without any help from the philosophy of 
mind. Such objectors, however, should consider that lines, circles, 
and triangles,— earths, alkalis and acids, — and also corollas, stamens, 
pistils and stigmas, are objects which exist independently of the mind, 
and may be investigated by the application of the mental powers, in 
ignorance of the constitution of the faculties themselves ; — just as we 
may practice archery without studying the anatomy of the band ; 
whereas the objects of moral and political philosophy are the qualities 
and actions of the mind itself : These objects have no existence in- 
dependently of mind ; and they can no more be systematically or 
scientifically understood without the knowledge of mental philosophy, 
than optics can be cultivated as a^cience in ignorance of the structure 
•nd modes of action of the eye. 

I have endeavored to avoid all religious controversy. " The ob- 
ject of Moral Philosophy," says Mr. Stewart, " is to ascertain the 
general rules of a wise and virtuous conduct in life, in so far as these 
rules may be cjscovered by the unassisted light of nature ; that is by 
an examination of the principles of the human constitution, and o/ 
the circumstances in which Man is placed." * By following this me- 

* Outlines of Moral Philosophy, p. 9. 



REFACK. t 

thod of inquiry, Dr. Hutcheson, Dr. Adam Smith, Dr. Reid, Mr 
Stewart and Dr. Thomas Brown, have, in succession, produced high 
Ij interesting and instructive works on Moral Scien«e ; and the pre- 
sent Essay is a humble attempt to pursue the same plan, with the aid 
of the new lights afforded by Phrenology. I confine my observations 
exclusively to Man as he exists in the present world, and beg that, in 
perusing the subsequent pages, this explanation may be constantly kept 
in view. In consequence of forgetting it, my language has occasionally 
been misapprehended, and my objects misrepresented. When I speak 
of man's " highest interest," for example, as on page 14, and in other 
places, I uniformly refer to man as he exists in this world ; but as 
the same God presides over both the temporal and the eternal interests 
of the human race, it seems to me demonstrably certain, that what ia 
conducive to the one, will in no instance impede the other, but will in 
general be favorable to it also. This work, however, does not direct- 
ly embrace the interests of eternity. These belong to the department 
of theology, and demand a different line of investigation ; I confinfe 
myself exclusively to moral philosophy. 

Since the first edition of this work appeared, on the 9th of June, 1828, 
additional attention has been paid to the study of the laws of Nature, 
and their importance has been more generally recognised. In M A 
Discourse on the Studies of the University, by Actom Sedgwick, M. A. 
&c." of which a third edition was published at Cambridge in 1834, the 
author remarks, that " we are justified in saying, that, in the moral 
as in the physical world, God seems to govern by general laws." "I 
am not now," says he, " contending for the doctrine of moral neces 
sity ; but I do affirm, that the moral government of God is by genera, 
laws, and that it is our bounden duty to study these laws, and, as 
far as we can, to turn them to an account." " If there be a superin- 
tending Providence, and if his will be manifested oj general laws 
operating both on the physical and moral world, then must a violation 
of these laws be a violation of his will, and be pregnant with inevita- 
ble misery." " Nothing can, in the end, be expedient for man, except 
it be subordinate to those laws the Author of Nature has thought fit 
to impress on his moral and physical creation." "In the end, high 
principle and sound policy will be found in the strictest harmony with 
each other." 

These are precisely the views which it is the object of the present 
work to enforce; and it is gratifying tome to see them so ably and elo- 
quently recommended to the attention of the students of the University 
•f Cambridge. 



33, Charlotte Square 

KnOBURGH, 5th March, 1885 



• } 



1 + 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

fllNERAL VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN 
NATURE, AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OB- 
JECTS, t Page 9 

CHAPTER I. 

ON NATURAL LAWS, . • • • • 33 

CHAPTER II. 

ON THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN, AND ITS RELATIONS 

TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS, 47 

Sect. I. Man considered as a Physical Being, • • 48 
II. Man considered as an Organized Being, . 50 

III. Man considered as an Animal — Moral — and 
Intellectual Being, ...... 56 

IV. The Faifulties of Man compared with each 
other; or the Supremacy of the Moral Sentiments 

and Intellect, 60 

V. The Faculties of Man compared with External 
Objects, 80 

CHAPTER m. 

ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, AND THE 

CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT, 87 

CHAPTER IV. 

4PPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE PRAC- 
TICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE, • • 98 

CHAPTER V. 

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND 
REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAWS OF 
NATURE, 108 

Sect I. Calamities arising from Infringements of the 

Physical Laws, . . • • • .109 

II. On the Evils that befall Mankind from In- 
fringement of th Organic Laws, • • 11 J 



CONTEXTS. 

ITI. Calamities arising from Infringement of the 
Moral Law, 1 99 

CHAPTER VI. 

OX PUNISHMENT, ." 246 

Sect. I. On Punishment as inflicted under the Natural 

Laws, • 246 

II. Moral Advantages of Punishment • • 268 

4 

CHAPTER Vn. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATUHAL LAWS, 271 

CHAPTER Vin. 

INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS ON THE HAPPINESS 

OF INDIVIDUALS, •••••• 288 

CHAPTER DC. 

nN THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE, 298 
CONCLUSION, • • 319 



APPENDIX. 

Natural Laws, 333 

Note II. Muscular Labor, 338 

III. Progress of Phrenology, . . . " 339 

IV. Organic Laws, 343 

V. Hereditary Descent of National Peculiarities, 344 

VI. Hereditary Complexion, .... 345 

VII. Hereditary Transmission of Qualities, . . 346 
VIII. Laws relative to Marriage and Education in 

Germany, 356 

IX. Death, 361 

X. Edinburgh Philosophical Association, . . 365 

XL Infringement of the Moral Laws, • . 369 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

•ENElAL VIEW OP THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 
AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

In surveying the external world, we discover that every 
:reature and every physical object has received a definite 
constitution, and been placed in certain relations to other 
objects. The natural evidence of a Deity and his attri* 
butes is drawn from contemplating these arrangements, 
[ntelligence, wisdom, benevolence and power, character- 
ize the works of creation ; and the human mind ascends by 
a chain of correct and rigid induction to a great First 
Cause, in whom these qualities must reside. But hitherto 
this great truth has excited a sublime yet barren admira- 
tion, rather than led to beneficial practical results.* 

Man obviously stands pre-eminent among sublunary 
objects, and is distinguished by remarkable endowments 
above all other terrestrial beings. Nevertheless no crea- 
ture presents such anomalous appearances as man. View- 
ed in one aspect he almost resembles a demon ; in another 
he still bears the impress of the image of God Seen in his 
crimes, his wars, and his devastations, he might be mis- 
taken for an incarnation of an evil spirit ; contemplated 
in his schemes of charity, his discoveries in science, and 
his vast combination for the benefit of his race, he seems 
a bright intelligence from Heaven. The lower animals 
exhibit a more simple and regulated constitution. The 
lion is bold and ferocious, but he is regularly so; and, 
besides, is placed in circumstances suited to his nature, 
in which at once scope is given and limits are set to the 
gratification of his instincts. The sheep, as a contrast, is 
mild, feeble and inoffensive ; but its external condition also 
is suited to its constitution, and it apparently lives and 
flourishes in as great enjoyment as the lion. The same 
remark apply to all the inferior creatures; and the idea 
which I wish particularly to convey is, that their bodily 
organs, faculties, instincts, and external circumstances. 



19 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OT HUMAN NATURE. 

form parts of a system in which adaptation and harmony 
are discoverable; and that the enjoyment of the animals 
depends on the adaptation of their constitution to their 
external condition. If we saw the lion one day tearing in 
pieces every animal that crossed its path, and the next 
oppressed with remorse for the death of its victims, or 
compassionately healing those whom it had mangled, we 
should exclaim, what an inconsistent creature ! and con- 
clude that it could not by possibility be happy, owing to 
this opposition among the principles of its nature. In 
short, we should be strikingly convinced that two condi- 
tions are essential to enjoyment ; first, that the different 
instincts of an animal must be in harmony with each other; 
and secondly, that its whole constitution must be in ac- 
cordance with its external condition. 

When, keeping these principles in view, we direct our 
attention to Man, very formidable anomalies present them- 
selves. The most opposite instincts or impulses exist in 
his mind ; actuated by Combativeness, Destructiveness, 
Acquisitiveness, and Self-Esteem, the moral sentiments 
aeing in abeyance, he is almost a fiend; on the contrary, 
when inspired by Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Con- 
scientiousness, Ideality, and Intellect, the benignity, se- 
renity, and splendor, of a highly-elevated nature beam 
from his eye, and radiate from his countenance. He is 
then lovely, noble, and gigantically great. But how shall 
these conflicting tendencies be reconciled ? And how can 
external circumstances be devised that shall accord with 
such heterogenous elements ? Here again a conviction of 
the power and goodness of the Deity comes to our assist- 
ance. Man is obviously an essential and most important 
part of the present system of creation, and, without doubt- 
ing of his future destinies, we ought not, so long as our 
knowledge of his nature is incomplete, to consider his con 
dition here as inexplicable. The nai ure of man has hither- 
to, to all philosophical purposes, been unknown, and both 
the designs of the Creator and the situation of man have 
been judged of ignorantly and rashly. The skeptic has 
advanced arguments against religion, and crafty deceivers 
have, in all ages, founded systems of superstition, on the 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 1J 

disorder and inconsistency which are too readily admitted 
lo be inseparable attributes of human existence on earth- 
But I venture to hope that man will yet be found in har- 
mony with himself and with his condition. 

I am aware that some individuals, whose piety I respect, 
conceive, that as the great revolutions of human society, 
as well as all events in the lives of individuals, take place 
under the guidance of the Deity, it is presumptuous, if not 
impious, in man to endeavor to scan their causes and 
effects. But it is obvious that the Creator governs man 
with reference to the faculties bestowed on him. The 
young swallow, when it migrates on the approach of the 
first winter of its life, is impelled by an instinct implanted 
by the Deity, and it can neither know the causes that 
prompt it to fly, nor the end to be attained by its flight. 
Fut its mental constitution is wisely adapted to this con- 
dition; for it has no powers stimulating it to reflect on 
itself and external objects, and to inquire whence came 
its desires, or to what object they tend. Man, however, 
has been framed differently. The Creator has bestowed 
on him faculties to observe phenomena, and to trace cause 
a ad effect ; and he has constituted the external world to affora 
scope to these powers. We are entitled, therefore, to say, 
that it is the Creator himself who has commanded us to 
observe and inquire into the causes that prompt us to act, 
and the results that will naturally follow ; and to adapt 
our conduct according to what we shall discover. 

To enable us to form a just estimate of our duty and 
interest as to the rational occupants of this world, we may 
inquire briefly into the constitution of external nature, and 
of ourselves. 

The constitution of this world does not look like a sys- 
tem of optimism. It appears to be arranged in all its 
departments on the principal of gradual and progressive 
improvement. Physical nature itself has undergone many 
revolutions, and apparently has constantly advanced. 
Geology seems to show a distinct preparation of it for 
successive orders of living beings, rising higher and high- 
er in the scale of intelligence and organization, until man 
appeared 



12 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF Ht/MAN NATURE, 

The globe, in the first state in which the imagination 
can venture to consider it, says Sir H. Davy,* appears 
10 have been a fluid mass, with an immense atmosphere 
revolving in space round the sun. By its cooling, a por- 
tion of its atmosphere was probably condensed into water, 
which occupied a part of its surface. In this state, no 
forms of life, such as now belong to our system, could 
have inhabited it. The crystalline rocks, or, as they are 
©ailed by geologists, the primary rocks, which contain no 
vestiges of a former order of things, were the result of 
ihe first consolidation on its surface. Upon the farther 
cooling, the water, which, more or less, had covered it, 
contracted ; depositions took place ; shell-fish and coral 
insects were created, and began their labors. Islands 
appeared in the midst of the ocean, raised from the deep 
by the productive energies of millions of zoophytes. 
These islands became covered with vegetables fitted to 
bear a high temperature, such as palms, and various 
species of plants, similar to those which now exist in the 
hottest parts of the world. The submarine rocks of these 
new formations of land became covered with aquatic 
vegetables, on which various species of shell-fish, and 
common fishes, found their nourishment. As the temper- 
ature of the globe became lower, species of the oviparous 
reptiles appear to have been created to inhabit it ; and 
the turtle, crocodile, and various gigantic animals of the 
Sauri (lizard) kind seem to have haunted the bays and 
waters of the primitive lands. But in this state of things, 
there appears to have been no order of events similar to 
the present. Immense volcanic explosions seem to have 
taken place, accompanied by elevations and depressions 
of the surface of the globe, producing mountains, and 

* The description in the text is extracted chiefly from " The Last 
Days of a Philosopher," by Sir Humphrey Davy, 1831, p. 134, on 
account of its popular style ; but similar representations may be found 
in several recent works on Geology, — particularly "A Geological 
Manual, by . T. De La Beche ; " the Penny Maga-in oi 1833, in a very 
instructive and popular form ; and in Sedgwick's Discourse on the 
•tudies of the University of Cambridge, third edition. Mr LyeiL, 
however, in his principles of Geology, vol. i. ch. ix controverts th« 
doctrine of a progressive development of plants and animals. 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNA I OBJECTS. U 

causing new and extensive depositions from the primitive 
ocean. The remains of living beings, plants, fishes, birds, 
and oviparous reptiles, are found in the strata of rocks 
which are the monuments and evidence of these changes. 
When these revolutions became less frequent, and the 
globe became still more cooled, and inequalities of tempe- 
rature were established by means of the mountain-chains, 
rmore perfect animals became its inhabitants, such as the 
-^ammoth, megalonix, megatherium, and gigantic hyena, 
many of which have become extinct. Five successive 
races of plants, and four successive races of animals, 
appear to have been created and swept away by the 
physical revolutions of the globe, before the system of 
things became so permanent as to fit the world for man. 
In none of these formations, whether called secondary, 
tertiary, or diluvial, have the fossil remains of man, or 
any of his works, been discovered. At last man was 
created, and since that period there has been little altera- 
tion in the physical circumstances of the globe. 

"In all these various formations/' says Dr. Buckland, 
"the coprolites," (or the dung of the saurian reptiles in 
a fossil state, exhibiting scales of fishes and other traces 
of the prey which they had devoured) "form records of 
warfare waged by successive generations of inhabitants 
of our planet on one another; and the general law of 
nature, which bids all to eat and be eaten in their turn, is 
shown to have been co-extensive with animal existence 
upon our globe, the carnivora in each period of the world's 
history fulfilling their destined office to check excess in the 
progress of life, and maintain the balance of creation." 
This brief summary of the physical changes of the- 
globe, is not irrelevant to our present object. The more 
that is discovered of creation, the more conspicuously 
does uniformity of design appear to pervade its every 
department. We perceive here the physical world gradu- 
ally improved and prepared for man. 

Let us now contemplate Man himself, and his adapta- 
tion to the external creation. The world, we have seen, 
was inhabited by living beings, and death and repro- 
duction prevailed before man appeared. The order of 
2 



14 VTJSW OF THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE, 

creation seems not to have been changed at his intro- 
duction: — he appears to have been adapted to it. He 
received from his Creator an organized structure, and 
animal instincts. He took his station among, yet at the 
head of, the beings that existed at his creation. Man 
'6 to a certain extent an animal in his structure, powers, 
feelings and desires, and is adapted to a world in which 
death reigns, and generation succeeds generation. This 
fact, although so trite and obvious as to appear scarcely 
worthy of being noticed, is of importance in treating of 
Man; because the human being, in so far as he resembles 
the inferior creatures, is capable of enjoying a life like 
theirs : he has pleasure in eating, drinking, sleeping, and 
exercising his limbs ; and one of the greatest obstacles to 
improvement is, that many of the race are contented with 
these enjoyments, and consider it painful to be compelled 
to seek higher sources of gratification. But to man's 
animal nature, have been added, by a bountiful Creator, 
moral sentiments and reflecting faculties, which not only 
place him above all other creatures on earth, but consti- 
tute him a different being from any of them, a rational 
and accountable creature. These faculties are his highest 
and his best gifts, and the sources of his purest and 
intensest pleasures. They lead him directly to the great 
objects of his existence,' — obedience to God, and love to 
his fellow men. But this peculiarity attends them, that 
while his animal faculties act powerfully of themselves, 
his rational faculties require to be cultivated, exercised, 
and instructed, before they will yield their full harvest of 
enjoyment. 

The Creator has so arranged the external world as to 
hold forth every possible inducement to man to cultivate 
his higher powers, nay almost to constrain him to do so. 
The philosophic mind, in surveying the world as prepa- 
red for the reception of the human race, perceives in 
external nature a vast assemblage of stupendous powers 
too g-eat for the feeble hand of man entirely to control, 
but kindly subjected within certain limits to the influence 
©f his will. Man is introduced on earth apparently help- 
less and unprovided^ for as a homeless stranger; but the 



AND IT8 RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. \5 

soil on which he treads is endowed with a thousand capa- 
bilities of production, which require only to be excited by 
his intelligence to yield him the most ample returns. The 
impetuous torrent rolls its waters to the main; but as it 
dashes over the mountain-cliff, the human hand is capa- 
ble of withdrawing it from its course, and bending its 
powers subservient to his will. Ocean extends over 
half the globe her liquid plain, in which no path appears 
and the rude winds oft lift her waters to the sky; but, 
there the skill of man may launch the strong-knit bark, 
spread forth the canvass to the gale, and make the track- 
less deep a highway through the world. In such a state 
of things, knowledge is truly powerful; and the highest 
interest of human beings is to become acquainted with the 
constitutions and relations of every object around them, 
that they may discover its capabilities of ministering to 
their own advantage. Farther, where these physical 
energies are too great to be controlled, man has received 
intelligence by which he may observe their course, and 
accommodate his conduct to their influence. This capa- 
city of adaptation is a valuable substitute for the power 
of regulating them by his will. Man cannot arrest the 
sun in its course, so as to avert the wintry storms and 
cause perpetual spring to bloom around him; but, by 
the proper exercise of his intelligence and corporeal 
enegies, he is able to foresee the approach of bleak skies 
and rude winds, and to place himself in safety from their 
injurious effects. These powers of controlling nature, and 
of accommodating his conduct to its course, are the direct 
results of his rational faculties; and in proportion to 
their cultivation is his sway extended. If the rain falls 
and the wind blows, and the ocean billows lash against 
the mere animal, it must endure them all; because it 
cannot control their action, nor protect itself by art from 
their power. Man, while ignorant, continues in a condi- 
tion almost equally helpless. But let him put forth his 
proper human capacities, and he then finds himself invest- 
ed with the power to rear, to build, to fabricate, and to 
store up provisions; and by availing himself of these 
resources, and accommodating his conduct to the course 



16 VIEW OP THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

r»f nature's laws, he is able to smile in safety beside the 
cheerful hearth, when the elements maintain their fiercest 
war abroad. 

Again: We~are surrounded by countless beings, infe- 
rior and equal to ourselves, whose qualities yield us the 
greatest happiness, or bring upon us the bitterest evil, 
according as we affect them agreeably or disagreeably by 
our conduct. To draw forth all their excellences, and 
cause them to diffuse joy around us — to avoid touching 
the harsher springs of their constitution, and bringing 
painful discord to our ears — it is indispensably necessary 
that we know the nature of our fellows, and act with a 
habitual regard to the relations established by the Crea- 
tor betwixt ourselves and them. 

Man, ignorant and uncivilized, is a ferocious, sensual, 
and superstitious savage. The external world affords 
some enjoyments to his animal feelings, but it confounds 
his moral and intellectual faculties. External nature 
exhibits to his mind a mighty chaos of events, and a dread 
display of power. The chain of causation appears too 
intricate to be unravelled, and the power too stupendous 
to be controlled. Order and beauty, indeed occasionally 
gleam forth to his eye, from detached portions of crea- 
tion, and seem to promise happiness and joy ; but more 
frequently, clouds and darkness brood over the scene, 
and disappoint his fondest expectations. Evil seems 
so mixed up with good, that he regards it either as its 
direct product or its inseparable accompaniment. Nature 
is never contemplated with a clear perception of its 
adaptation to the purpose of promoting the true enjoy- 
ment of man, or with a well founded confidence in the 
wisdom and benevolence of its Author. Man, when civi- 
lized and illuminated by knowledge, on the other hand, 
discovers in the objects and occurrences around him, a 
scheme beautifully arranged for the gratification of his 
whole powers, animal, moral, and intellectual; he recog- 
nises in himself the intelligent and accountable subject 
of an all-bountiful Creator, and in joy and gladness 
desires to study the Creator's works, to ascertain his 
laws, anr! to yield to them a steady aud a willing obedi- 



AND IT8 RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 17 

ence. Without undervaluing the pleasures of his anima 4 
nature, he tastes the higher, more refined, and more endu- 
ring delights of his moral and intellectual capacities, and 
he then calls aloud for Education as indispensable to the 
full enjoyment of his rational powers. 

If this representation of the condition of the human 
being on earth be correct, we perceive clearly the unspeak 
able advantage of applying our minds to gain knowledge 
of our own constitution and that of external nature, and 
of regulating our conduct according to rules drawn from 
the information acquired. Our constitution and our posi- 
tion equally imply, that the grand object of our existence 
is, not to remain contented with the pleasures of mere 
animal life, but to take the dignified and far more delight- 
ful station of moral and rational occupants of this lower 
world. 

If the physical history of the globe clearly indicates 
progression in an advancing series of changes the civil 
history of man equally proclaims the march, although 
often vacillating and slow, of moral and intellectual im- 
provement. To avoid too extensive an inquiry, unsuitable 
to an introductory discourse, let us confine our attention 
to the aspects presented by society in our native country. 

At the time of the Roman invasion, the inhabitants of 
Britain lived as savages, and appeared in painted skins. 
After the Norman conquest, one part of the nation was 
placed in the condition of serfs, and condemned to labor 
like beasts of burden, while anotk^i? <*^-oted themselves 
to war. They fought battles during day, and in the night 
probably dreamed of bloodshed and broils. These gene- 
rations severally believed their own condition to be perma- 
nent and inevitable lot of man. Next, however, have 
come the present arrangements of society, in which mil- 
lions of men are shut up in cotton and other manufactories 
for ten or twelve hours a-day; others labor under ground 
in mines; others plough the fields; .while thousands of 
higher rank pass their whole lives in idleness and dissi- 
pation. Now, the elementary principles, both of mind 
and body, were the same in our painted ancestors, in 
their chivalrous descendants, and in us, their shopkeeping, 
2 2* 



IS VIBW OF THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE, 

manufacturing, and money-gathering children. Yet how 
different the external circumstances of the individuals of 
these several generations ! If, in the savage state, the 
internal faculties of man were in harmony among them- 
selves, and if his external condition was in accordance 
with them, he must then have enjoyed all the happiness 
that his nature admitted of, and he must have erred when 
he changed; or, if the institutions and customs of the age 
of chivalry were calculated to gratify his whole nature 
harmoniously, he must have been unhappy as a savage, 
and must be miserable now ; if his present condition be 
the perfection of his nature, he must have been far from 
enjoyment, both as a savage and a feudal warrior; and 
if none of these conditions have been in accordance with 
his constitution, he must still have his happiness to seek. 
Every age, accordingly, has testified that it was not in 
possession of contentment; and the question presents 
itself, If human nature has received a definite constitution, 
and if one arrangement of external circumstances be more 
suited to yield it gratification than another, — what are 
that constitution and that arrangement ? No one can tell. 
And in what respects have we in times past departed, 
and do we now depart, from them ? The answer is in- 
volved in equal obscurity. How has it happened that, in 
all their various changes, the British have never succeed- 
ed in satisfying themselves with their condition ? Why 
did they institute the savage state? It was not fixed by 
the Creator as the permanent condition of man, otherwise 
they could not have escaped from it. The bear and the 
wolf, the ox, and the camel, do not change their states 
and avocations as men have done. What prompted them 
to betake themselves to war as their most honourable 
employment ? Again we say that that condition was not 
the ultimate lot of man, because it also has changed. 
And what has led us now to spin and weave, to hammer 
and construct, for all the nations of the globe? We 
answer, that this state may also disappear, and then it 
will not be regarded as the ne phis ultra of human enjoy- 
ment. Farther, if we have not reached the limits of at- 
tainable perfection, what are we next to attempt? Are 



AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 19 

We and our posterity to spin and weave, build ships, and 
speculate in commerce, as the highest occupations to 
which human nature can aspire, and persevere in these 
labors till the end of time? Or if changes are to follow, 
we may ask, who instituted the changes which history 
records ? On what principles were they regulated? And 
who shall guide the helm in our future voyage on the 
ocean of existance ? The British are here cited as a type 
of mankind at large ; for in every age and every clime 
similar races have been run, and with similar conclu- 
sions. Only one answer can be returned to these in- 
quiries. Man is evidently a progressive being ; and the 
Creator having designed a higher path for him than for 
the lower creatures, has given him intellect to discover 
his own nature and that of external objects, and left him, 
by the exercise of it and his other powers, to find out for 
himself the method of placing his faculties in harmony 
among themselves, and in accordance with the external 
world. Time and experience are necessary to accomplish 
these ends, and history exhibits the human race only in 
a state of progress towards the full development of their 
powers, and the attainment of rational enjoyment. 

As long as man remained ignorant of his own nature, 
he could not, of design, form his institutions in accordance 
with it. Until his own faculties became the subjects of 
his observation, and their relations the objects of his 
reflection, they operated as mere instincts. He adopted 
savage habits, because his animal propensities were not 
at first directed by moral sentiment or enlightened by 
reflection. He next adopted the condition of the barbar- 
ian, because his higher powers had made some advances, 
but had not yet attained supremacy; and he now manufac- 
tures, because his constructive faculties and intellect have 
given him power over physical nature, while his Acquis- 
itiveness and Ambition are predominant, and are gratified 
by those avocations. Not one of these changes, however, 
has been adopted from design, or from perception of its 
suitableness to the nature of man. He has been ill at 
ease in them all ; but it does not follow that he shall 
continue for ever equally ignorant of his nature, and 



J?0 VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE, 

equally incapable of framing institutions to harmonise 
with it. The simple facts, that the Creator has bestowed 
»on man reason capable of discovering his own nature, 
and its relations to external objects ; that He has left 
him to apply it in framing suitable institutions to ensure 
his happiness; that, nevertheless, man has hitherto been 
ignorant of his nature and of its relations, and that, in 
consequence, his modes of life have never been adopted 
from enlightened views of his whole capacities and qualities, 
but sprung up from the instinctive ascendency of one 
blind propensity or another, — warrant us in saying, that 
a new era will begin when man shall be enabled to study 
his own nature and its relations with success ; and that 
the future may exhibit him assuming his station as a 
rational creature, pursuing his own happiness with intel 
iigence and design, and at length attaining higher gratifi- 
cation to his whole faculties than he has hitherto enjoyed. 
The inquiry next naturally presents itself, What has 
been the cause of the human race remaining for so many 
ages unacquainted with their own nature and its relations? 
The answer is, that, before the discovery of the functions 
of the brain, they did not know how to study these sub- 
jects in a manner calculated to attain to true principles 
and practical results. The philosophy of man was con- 
ducted as a speculative, and not as an inductive science ; 
and even when attempts were made at induction, the 
manner in which they were conducted was at variance 
with the fundamental requisites of a sound philosophy.* 
In consequence, even the most enlightened nations have 
never possessed any practical philosophy of mind, but 
have been bewildered amidst countless contradictory 
theories. 

In our own country two views of the constitution of the 
world and of human nature have long been prevalent, 
differing widely from each other, and which, if legitimately 
followed out, would lead to distinct practical results. 
The one is, that the world contains the elements of im 
provement within itself, which time will evolve and bring 

* See System of Phrenology, Third Edition, p, 40. 



VIBW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATUBB, 2l 

io maturity; it having been constituted by the Creator on 
the principle of a progressive system, like the acorn in 
reference to the oak. This hypothesis ascribes to the 
power and wisdom of the Divine Being the whole pheno- 
mena which nature, animate and inanimate, exhibits; 
because, in conferring on each part the specific qualities 
and constitution which belong to it, and in placing it in 
the circumstances in which it is found, He is assumed to 
have designed, from the first, the whole results which 
these qualities, constitution, and circumstances, are cal- 
culated in time to produce. There is no countenance 
given to atheism by this theory. On the contrary, it af- 
fords the richest and most comprehensive field imaginable 
for tracing the evidence of Divine power, wisdom, and 
goodness in creation. 

The other hypothesis is, that the world was perfect at 
first, but fell into derangement, continues in disorder, and 
does not contain within itself the elements of its own rec- 
tification. 

If the former view be sound, the first object of man, as 
an intelligent being in quest of happiness, must be to 
study the elements of external nature and their capabili- 
ties ; the elementary qualities of his own nature, and their 
applications; and the relationship between these. His 
second object will be to discover and carry into effect the 
conditions — physical, moral, and intellectual— which, in 
virtue of this constitution, require to be realized before the 
fullest enjoyment of which he is capable can be attained 

According to the second view of creation, no good can 
be expected from the evolution of nature's elements, these 
being all essentially disordered ; and human improve 
ment and enjoyment must be derived chiefly from spiritual 
influences. If the one hypothesis be sound, man must 
fulfil the natural conditions requisite to the existence of re- 
ligion, morality, and happiness, before he can reap full 
benefit from religious truth : according to the other, he 
must believe aright in religion, and be the subject of 
spiritual influences independent of natural causes, before 
he can become capable of any virtue or enjoyment; in 
short, according to it, science, philosophy, and all ar 



22 AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

rangements of the physical, moral, and intellectual ele- 
ments of nature, are subordinate in their effects on human 
happiness on earth, to religious faith. 

It appears to me extremely difficult to reconcile these 
conflicting views. 

The theologians who condemned the natural world, 
lived in an age when there was no sound philosophy, and 
almost no knowledge of physical science; they were un- 
avoidably ignorant of the elementary qualities of human 
nature, and of the influence of organization on the mental 
powers — the great link which connects the moral and 
physical worlds. They were unacquainted with the rela- 
tions subsisting between the mind and external nature ; 
and could not by possibility divine to what extent indi- 
viduals and society were capable of being improved by 
natural means. In the history of man, they had read 
chiefly of misery and crime, and had in their own age be- 
held much of both. They were, therefore, naturally led 
to form a low estimate of human nature, and to expect 
little good from the development of its inherent capabili- 
ties. These views appear to me to have influenced the 
interpretations of Scripture which they adopted : and 
these, having once been entwined with religious senti- 
ments, have descended from generation to generation : in 
consequence, persons of sincere piety have for several 
centuries been induced to look down on this world as a 
wilderness, abounding with briars, weeds, and noxious 
things — and to direct their chief attention, not to the study 
of its elements and their relations, in the hope of reducing 
them to order, but to enduring the disorder with patience 
and resignation, and to securing, by faith and penitence, 
salvation in a future life. It has never been with them a 
practical principle, that human nature itself maybe vastly 
improved in its moral and intellectual capacities, by those 
means which Physiology and Phrenology have recently 
opened up to us ; or that human nature and the external 
world are adjusted on the principle of favouring the de- 
velopment of the higher powers of our minds ; or that the 
study of the constitution of nature is indispensable to hu- 
man improvement ; or that this world and its professions 



VIEW OP 1HB CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATURE, 23 

and pursuits might be rendered favourable to virtue, by 
searching out the natural qualities of its elements, their 
relationship, and the moral plan on which God has con- 
stituted and governs it. Some philosophers and divines 
having failed to discover a consistent order or plan in the 
moral world, have rashly concluded that none such exists, 
or that it is inscrutable. It appears never to have oc 
curred to them that it is impossible to comprehend a 
whole system without becoming acquainted with its parts: 
—though ignorant of the physiology of man, of mental 
philosophy, of the philosophy of external nature, and of 
their relations, these authors have not perceived that this 
extensive ignorance of the details rendered it impossible 
for them to comprehend the plan of the whole. Hence they 
have involved themselves in contradictions ; for while it 
has been a leading principle with them, that enjoyment 
in a future state is to be the consequence of the believer 
attaining to a holy and pious frame of mind in this life, 
they have represented the constitution of the world to be so 
unfavourable to piety and virtue, that men in general, who 
continue attached to it, cannot attain to this right frame 
of spirit, or act habitually in consistency with it. They 
have not had philosophy sufficient to enable them to per- 
ceive that man must live in society to be either virtuous, 
useful, or happy ; that the social atmosphere is to the 
mind what air is to the lungs; and that, while an indi- 
vidual cannot exist to virtuous ends out of society, he 
cannot exist in a right frame of mind in it, if the moral 
atmosphere with which he is surrounded be deeply con- 
taminated with vice and error. Individual merchants, 
for example, cannot act habitually on Christian princi- 
ples, if the maxims of their trade be not Christian; and 
if the world be so unfavourably constituted that it does 
not admit of the rules of trade becoming Christian, then 
active life and practical religion are naturally opposed to 
each other. Divines have laboriously recommended 
spiritual exercises as means of improvement in this life, 
and of salvation in the next; but have rarely dealt with 
the philosophy of this world, or attempted its rectification, 
bo as to render these exercises truly efficacious. Their 



04 AND ITS RELATIONS To EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

minds have been infected with the first great error, that 
this world is irredeemably defective in its constitution, 
and that human hope must be concentrated chiefly on the 
next. This may be attributed to the premature forma- 
tion of a system of theology in the dawn of civilization, 
before the qualities of the physical world, and the elements 
of the moral world, and their relationship, were known; 
and to erroneous interpretations of Scripture, in conse- 
quence, partly, of that ignorance. 

Now, if the discovery of the philosophy of mind, found- 
ed on the physiology of the brain, is to operate at all in 
favour of human improvement, one of the most striking 
effects which it will produce, will be the lifting up of the 
veil which has so long concealed the natural world, and 
its capabilities and importance, from the eyes of divines. 
To all practical ends connected with theology, the philo- 
sophy of nature might as well not exist: With few except 
tions, the sermons preached a century ago are equal, if 
not superior in sense and suitableness to human natuie, 
to those delivered yesterday ; and yet, in the interval, the 
human mind has made vast advances in knowledge of the 
works of creation. Divines have frequently applied scien- 
tific discoveries in proving the existence and developing 
the character of the Deity; but they have failed in apply- 
ing either the discoveries themselves, or the knowledge of 
the Divine character obtained by means of them, to the 
construction of any system of mental philosophy, capable 
of combining harmoniously with religion, and promoting 
the improvement of the human race. 

This, however, Phrenology will enable them one day 
to do. In surveying the world itself, the phrenologist 
perceives that the Creator has bestowed definite qualities 
on the human mind, and on external objects, and estab- 
lished certain relations between them; that the mental 
faculties have been incessantly operating according to 
their inherent tendencies, generally aiming at ^ood, al- 
ways desiring it, but often missing it through pure ignor- 
ance and blindness, yet capable of attaining it when 
enlightened and properly directed. The baneful effect* 
of ignorance are every where apparent. Three-fourths 



VrEW OP THB CONSTITUTION OF HUIcAN NATURK, 25 

of the mental faculties have direct reference to this worlds 
and in their functions appear to have no intelligible rela« 
tion to another— such are Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Constructiveness, 
Acquisitiveness, Secretiveness, and others; while the re* 
maining fourth are calculated to have reference at once 
to this life and to a higher state of existence — such are 
Benevolence, Ideality, Wonder, Veneration, Hope, Con- 
scientiousness, and Intellect. While the philosophy of 
mind continued a purely abstract theory, moralists and 
divines enjoyed an unlimited privilege, of which they 
'argely availed themselves, of ascribing or denying to h Ti- 
tian nature whatever qualities best suited their several 
systems ; but now the case is different. Organs cannot 
be added to or displaced from the brain by the fancy or 
the logic of contending disputants or sects ; and philoso- 
phers and divines must hereafter study human nature as 
it exists, and accommodate their views to its actual quali- 
ties and relations. To guide and successfully apply the 
former class of faculties to the promotion of human hap- 
piness, it appears indispensable that the faculties them- 
selves*— -the physical conditions on which their strength 
and weakness, inertness and vivacity, depend — the rela- 
tions established between them and the external world, 
which is the grand theatre of their action — and, finally, 
the relation between them and the superior faculties, 
which are destined to direct them, should be known ; and 
yet, scarcely any thing is known in a philosophical and 
practical sense, on these points, by the people at large. 
If I am correct in saying that these faculties, by their 
constitution, have reference to this world alone, then use- 
ful knowledge for their guidance will be afforded by the 
philosophy of this world; and the wisdom which is to 
reduce them to order, will receive important aid from 
studying the constitution which it has pleased the Crea- 
tor to bestow on them, and the relations which he has 
seen proper to institute between them and the other de- 
partments of his works. His wisdom and goodness will 
be found to pervade them. He has bestowed on us intel- 
lect to discover his will and sentiments disposing us to 



26 AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

obey it, in whatever record its existence is inscribed ; 
yet little of this knowledge is taught to the people by 
divines. 

Knowledge of the constitution, relations, and capabili- 
nes of sublunary things and beings, is indispensable also 
to the proper exercise and direction of the superior powers 
of the mind. In all ages, practical men have been en- 
gaged for three-fourths of their time in pursuits calculated 
to gratify the faculties which have reference to this world 
alone; but, unfortunately, the remaining fourth of their 
time has not been devoted to pursuits bearing reference 
to their higher faculties. Through want of intellectual 
education, they have been incapable of deriving pleasure 
from observing nature, and have not been furnished with 
ideas to enable them to think. Owing to the barbarism 
which pervaded society in general, there has been no 
moral atmosphere in which their superior sentiments 
could play. Ambition, that powerful stimulant in social 
life, has not been directed to moral objects, but generally 
the reverse. The hours, therefore, which ought to have 
been dedicated to the improvement of the higher portion 
of their faculties, were either devoted to the pursuit of 
gain, sensual pleasure, or ambition, or spent in mere 
trifling amusements and relaxation. There was no de- 
cided onward purpose of moral and intellectual advance- 
ment abroad in the secular occupations of society; and 
the divines who formed public opinion, so far from dis- 
covering that this disorder was not inherent in the consti- 
tution of nature — and that Christianity, in teaching the 
doctrine of the supremacy of the moral faculties, neces- 
sarily implied the practicability of a state of society 
founded on that principle- — fell into the opposite error, 
and represented the world as deranged in all its parts, 
and incapable of rectification by the development of its 
own elements; and thereby added strength and perma- 
nence to the evils originating in ignorance and unguided 
passion. 

I am far from casting blame on the individuals who fell 
into these mistakes : such errors were inevitable at the 
time in which they lived, and with the lights which they 



YIBW OP THB CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATUHE, &7 

possessed; but I point them out as imperfections which 
ought to be removed. 

The late Earl of Bridgewater, died in February, 1829, 
and left the sum of L.8000, which, by his will, he directed 
the President of the Royal Society of London to apply in 
paying any person or persons to be selected by him, " to 
write, print, and publish one thousand copies of a work 
*On the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God, as mani- 
fested in the Creation;' illustrating such work by all rea- 
sonable arguments, as, for instance, the variety and for- 
mation of God's creatures in the animal, vegetable, and 
mineral kingdoms ; the effect of digestion, and thereby of 
conversion; the construction of the hand of man, and an 
infinite variety of other arguments ; e,s also by discoveries, 
ancient and modern, in arts, sciences \ and tJic whole extent of 
literature." The President of the Royal tUtiety called in 
the aid of the Archbishop of Canterbury and of the Bishop 
of London, and with their advice nominated eight gentle- 
men to write eight treatises on different branches of this 
great subject. 

One of the objects of the Earl of Bridgewater appears 
to have been to ascertain what the character of external 
nature and the capacities of the human mind really are, 
and what is the adaptation of the latter to the external 
world; questions of vast importance in themselves, and 
which can be solved only by direct, bold, and unbiassed 
appeals to Nature herself. This subject was committed 
to Dr. Chalmers. 

The first inquiry that ought naturally to have been pur- 
sued in the execution of this object was, "What is the 
constitution of the human mind ?" because, before we can 
successfully trace the adaptation of two objects to each 
other, we must be acquainted with each itself. But Dr. 
Chalmers and all the other authors of the Bridgewater 
Treatises have neglected this branch of inquiry. They 
disdained to acknowledge Phrenology as the philosophy 
of mind, yet have not brought forward any other sys- 
tem. Indeed, they have not attempted to assign to hu- 
man nature any definite or intelligible constitution. In 
consequence, they appear to me to have thrown ex 



28 AND IT8 RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL 0BJECT8. 

tremely little new light on the moral government of tha 
world. 

In the following work, the first edition of which was 
published in 1828, before the Earl of Bridgewater's 
death, I have endeavoured to avoid this inconsistency. 
Having been convinced, after minute and long continued 
observation, that Phrenology is the true philosophy of 
mind, I have assumed it as the basis of my reasoning. In 
this inquiry, it is indispensably necessary to found on 
some system of mental philosophy, in order to obtain one 
of the elements of the comparison ; but the reader, if he 
chooses, may regard the phrenological views as hypotheti- 
cal in the meantime, and judge of them by the result. Or 
he may attempt to substitute in their place any better 
system with which he is acquainted, and try how far it 
will successfully conduct him. 

In the next place, in instituting the comparison in 
question, I have brought into view, and endeavoured to 
substantiate and apply, a doctrine, which, as far as I 
have yet been able to discover, is the key to the true theory 
of the divine government of the world, but which has not 
hitherto been duly appreciated—namely, the independent 

EXISTENCE AND OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS OF CREATION, 

The natural laws may be divided into three great and in- 
tellectual classes — Physical, Organic, and Moral; and 
the peculiarity of the new doctrine is, its inculcating that 
these operate independently of each other; that each requires 
obedience to itself; that each, in its own specific way, re- 
wards obedience and punishes disobedience; and that 
human beings are happy in proportion to the extent to 
which they place themselves in accordance with all of 
these divine institutions. For example, the most pious 
and benevolent missionaries sailing to civilize and chris 
tianize the heathen, may, if they embark in an unsound 
ship, be drowned by disobeying a physical law, without 
their destruction being averted by their morality. On the 
other hand, if the greatest monsters of iniquity were em- 
barked in a staunch and strong ship, and managed it 
well, they might, and, on the general principles of the 
government of the world, they would, escape drowning in 



VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUM4N NATURE, 29 

■iroumstances exactly similar to those which would send 
the missionaries to the bottom. There appears something 
inscrutable in these results, if only the moral qualities of 
the men be contemplated; but if the principle be adopted 
that ships float in virtue of a purely physical law — and 
that the physical and moral laws operate independently, 
each in its own sphere— the consequences appear in a to- 
tally different light. 

In like manner, the organic laws operate independently ; 
and hence, one individual who has inherited a fine bodily 
constitution from his parents, and observes the rules of 
temperance and exercise, will enjoy robust health, al- 
though he may cheat, lie, blaspheme, and destroy his 
fellow men; while another, if he have inherited a feeble 
constitution, and disregard the laws of diet .and exercise, 
will suffer pain and sickness, although he may be a para- 
gon of every Christian virtue. These results are frequently 
observed to occur in the world ; and on such occasions the 
darkness and inscrutable perplexity of the ways of Pro- 
vidence are generally moralized upon, or a future life is 
called in as the scene in which these crooked paths are 
to be rendered straight. But if my views be correct, the 
Divine wisdom and goodness are abundantly conspicuous 
in these events; for by this distinct operation of the or- 
ganic and moral laws, order is preserved in creation, arvi 
as will afterwards be shown, the means of discipline and 
improvement are afforded to all the human faculties. 

The moral and intellectual laws also have an independent 
operation. The man who cultivates his intellect, and ha- 
bitually obeys the precepts of Christianity, will enjoy 
within himself a fountain of moral and intellectual happiness, 
which is the appropriate reward of that obedience. By 
these means he will be rendered more capable of study- 
ing, comprehending, and obeying, the physical and or- 
ganic laws, of placing himself in harmony with the whole 
order of creation, and of attaining the highest degree of 
perfection, and reaping the highest degree o^happiness, 
of which human nature in this world is susceptible. In 
short, whenever we apply the principle of the inde- 
pendent operation of the natural laws, the apparent 
3* 



30 AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

co/ifusion of the moral government of the world dis- 
appears. 

These views will be better understood and appreciated 
after perusing; the subsequent chapters, the object of 
which is to unfold and apply them ; the aim of these in- 
troductory remarks being merely to prepare the reader 
for tiavelling over the more abstruse portions of the work 
with a clearer perception of their scope and tendency 
The work itself has now been before the public for seven 
years, and I have seen no criticism which has shaken my 
conviction of the substantial truth of the principles main- 
tained in it. Of its value as a contribution to the philo- 
sophy of human nature, the public are the only legitimate 
judges. 

Some well meaning individuals have imagined that this 
worl^is hostile to religion, because it is confined to prin- 
ciples which can be discovered by observation and reflec- 
tion, and to human conduct in this life without direct 
reference to a future state ; but such ideas are entirely 
unfounded. Human nature and the external world have 
Doth proceeded from the Creator, and it is impossible, in 
interpreting their constitution aright, to arrive atanycon- 
ftiusitfns at variance with correct interpretations of Scrip- 
ture, lv Is argued, indeed, by some theologians, that the 
human faculties are no longer in the condition in which 
they were created > end that hence no sound philosophy 
can be deduced from studying their manifestations. (Chris- 
tian Ethics, by Ralph Wardlaw, D. D., p. 40.) I respect- 
fully reply, that man did not make the cerebral organs 
which he now possesses, nor bestow on them their func 
tions. Both organs and functions are as assuredly the 
direct gifts of the Creator, as is the oye, the ear, or the 
stomach. The science of optics is never questioned by 
any person who understands it, on the ground that the 
eye (on the structure, properties, and relations of which 
it depends) is not now in the condition in which it was 
created. Hfet to do this would be as reasonable as to 
deny the truth and authority of a philosophy of mind de- 
rived from correct observations on the constitution and 
relati >ns of the mental faculties and organs. It is pre 



VIEW OP THE CONSTITUTION OP HUMAN NATUBB* 31 

Burnable that the same Divine power, wisdom, and good- 
ness, which instituted the eye, and adapted its structure 
to light, presided also over the institution and adaptations 
of the internal organs of the mind. If a theologian were 
to maintain that these organs, or several of them, were 
bestowed* on man in consequence of sin, or from any other 
cause, philosophers would remain silent to such a propo- 
sition; because they do not inquire into the motives which 
induced the Creator to confer on man the organs and 
faculties which he possesses. They limit their investiga- 
tions to objects that exist, and their relations and uses. 
But on the ground that organs and faculties have been 
given by the Creator, they are entitled to maintain, that 
a philosophy of morals correctly deduced from their con 
stitution must accord with all correct interpretations of 
Scripture, otherwise religion can have no substantial 
foundation. If two sound interpretations of the divine 
will, as recorded in Creation and in Scripture, can by pos- 
sibility contradict each other, we can have no confidence 
in the moral Governor of the world. As, then, all real 
philosophy and all true religion must harmonize, there 
will be a manifest advantage in cultivating each by itself, 
till its full dimensions, limits, and applications shall be 
brought clearly to light. We may then advantageously 
compare them, and use the one as a means of elucidating 
or correcting our views of the other. 

To the best of my knowledge, there is not one practical 
result of the natural laws expounded in the subsequent 
pages, which does not harmonize precisely with the moral 
precepts of the New Testament. Indeed, this work has 
been characterized by some individuals as the philosophy 
^f Christian morality, because they regard it as exhibiting 
the natural foundations of the admirable precepts which 
in the New Testament are taught only dogmatically. It 
is objected, however, that, by omitting the sanction of fu- 
ture reward and punishment, this treatise leaves out the 
highest, best, and most efficacious class of motives tovir 
tuous conduct. This objection is founded on a misap* 
prehension of the object of the book. It is my purpose to 
show, that the rewards and punishments of human action* 



32 AND ITS RELATIONS TO EXTERNAL OBJECTS 

are infinitely more complete, certain, and efficacious, is 
this life, than is generally believed ; but by no means to 
interfere with the sanctions to virtue afforded by the pros- 
pect of future retribution. It appears to me that every 
action which is morally wrong in reference to a future 
life, is equally wrong and inexpedient with relation to this 
world ; and that it is of essential advantage to virtue to 
prove this to be the case. Having observed a great ten* 
dency in many religious men to overlook the importance 
of understanding the moral administration of this world, 
and to turn their attention too exclusively to the next, I 
have endeavoured to present the administration of the pre- 
sent world in a clear light, calculated to arrest attention, 
and to draw towards it that degree of consideration to 
which it is justly entitled. This proceeding will be re- 
cognized as the more necessary, if one principle largely 
insisted on in the following pages shall be admitted to be 
sound, viz. that religion operates on the human mind, in 
subordination, and not in contradiction, to its natural con- 
stitution. If this view be well founded, it will be indis- 
pensable that all the natural conditions required by the 
human constitution as preliminaries to moral and religious 
conduct be complied with, before any purely religious 
teaching can produce its full effects. If, for example, an 
ill constituted brain be unfavourable to the appreciation 
and practice of religious truth, it is not an unimportant 
inquiry, whether any, and what influence can be exer- 
cised by human means in improving the mental organs. 
If certain physical circumstances and occupations — such 
as insufficient food and clothing, unwholesome workshops 
and dwelling places, diet, and severe and long protracted 
labour — have a natural tendency to blunt all the higher 
eelings and faculties of the mind, in consequence of their 
niluence on the nervous system in general, and the brain 
in particular — and if religious emotions cannot be expe- 
rienced with full effect by individuals so situate— the ascer- 
tainment, with a view to removal, of the nature, causes, 
and effects of these impediments to holiness, is not a 
matter of indifference. This view has not been systema- 
tically adopted and pursued by the religious instructors 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 33 

of nmnkind in any age, or any country, and, in my humble 
opinion, for this sole reason, that the state of moral and 
physical science did not enable them either to appreciate 
its importance, or to carry it into effect. By presenting 
Nature in all her simplicity and strength, a new impulse 
and direction may perhaps be given to their understand- 
ings; and they may be induced to consider whether their 
universally confessed failure to render men as virtuous 
and happy as they desired, may not to some extent have 
arisen from their non-fulfilment of the natural conditions 
instituted by the Creator as preliminaries to success. 
They have complained of war waged, openly or secretly, 
by philosophy against religion; but they have not duly 
considered whether religion itself warrants them in treat- 
ing philosophy and all its dictates with neglect in their 
instruction of the people. True philosophy is a revelation 
of the Divine Will manifested in creation ; it harmonizes 
with all truth, and cannot with impunity be neglected. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON NATURAL LAWS. 

lie natural science, three subjects of inquiry may be dis- 
tinguished: 1st, What exists? 2dly, What is the purpose 
or design of what exists ? and, 3dly, Why was what exists 
designed for such uses as it evidently subserves ? 

It is matter of fact, for instance, that arctic regions and 
the torrid zone exist — that a certain kind of moss is 
abundant in Lapland in winter — that the reindeer feeds 
on it, and enjoys health and vigour in situations were 
most other animals would die ; that camels exist in Af- 
rica — that they have broad hoofs, and stomachs fitted to 
retain water for a considerable time— and that they 
flourish amid arid tracts of sand, where the reindeer would 
hardly live for a day. All this falls under the inquiry, 
What exists? 

In contemplating these facts, the understanding is 
3 



34 ON NATURAL I W9. 

naturally led to infer that one object of the Lapland moss 
is to feed the reindeer, and that one purpose of the deei 
is to assist man ; and that broad feet have been given to 
the camel to allow it to walk on sand, and a retentive 
stomach, to fit it for arid places in which water is foun& 
only at wide intervals. These conclusions result from 
inquiries into the nature and purposes of what exists ; ana 
such inquiries constitute a legitimate exercise of the hu- 
man intellect. 

But, 3dly, we may ask, Why were the physical elements 
of nature created such as they are ? Why were summer, 
autumn, spring, and winter introduced? Why were ani- 
mals formed of organized matter? Why were trackless 
wastes of snow and burning sand called into existence? 
These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it 
is, or into the will of the Deity in creation. 

Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first 
inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second ; but it 
may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the 
third. My investigations are confined to the first and 
second, and I do not discuss the third. 

It cannot be too much insisted on, that the Creator has 
bestowed definite constitutions on physical nature and on 
man and animals, and that they are regulated by fixed 
laws. A law, in the common acceptation, denotes a rule 
»f action; it implies a subject which acts, and that the ac- 
tions or phenomena which that subject exhibits take place 
in an established and regular manner; and this is the 
sense in which I shall use it, when treating of physical 
substances and beings. Water, for instance, when at the 
level of the sea, and combined with that portion of heat 
indicated by 32° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, freezes or 
becomes solid ; when combined with the portion denoted 
by 212° of that instrument, it rises into vapour or steam. 
Here water and heat are the substances, and the freezing 
and rising into vapour are the appearances or phenomena 
presented by them; and when we say that these take 
place according to a Law of Nature, we mean only that 
these modes of action appear, to our intellects, to be es- 
tablished in the very constitution of the water and heat 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 35 

and in their natural relationship to each other; and that 
the processes of freezing and raising in vapour are con 
stant appearances, when they are combined in these pro- 
portions, other conditions being the same. 

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st, That all 
substances and beings have received a definite natural 
constitution; 2dly, That every mode of action, which is 
said to take place according to a natural law, is inherer* 
in the constitution of the substance or being; and, 3dly 
That the mode of action described is universal and invari- 
able, wherever and whenever the substances or beings 
are found in the same condition. For example, water, at 
the level of the sea, freezes and boils at the same tempe- 
rature, in China, in France, in Peru, and in England ; and 
there is no exception to the regularity with which it ex- 
hibits these appearances, when all its other conditions 
are the same. This last qualification, however, must 
constantly be attended to in all departments of science. 
If water be carried to the top of a mountain 20,000 feet 
high, it will boil at a lower temperature than 212°; but 
this depends on its relationship to the air, and takes place 
also according to fixed and invariable principles. The 
air exerts a great pressure on water. At the level of the 
sea the pressure is every where nearly the same, and in 
that situation the freezing and boiling points correspond 
all over the world; but on the top of a high mountain the 
pressure is much less, and the vapour, not being hel| 
down by so great a power of resistance, rises at a lower 
temperature than 212°. But this change of appearances 
does not indicate a change in the constitution of the water 
and the heat, but only a variation in the circumstances in 
which they are placed ; and hence it is not correct to say, 
that water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a 
lower temperature than 212°, is an exception to the gene- 
ral law of nature. There are no exceptions to the laws 
of nature ; for the Creator is too wise and two powerful to 
make imperfect*or inconsistent arrangements. The erroi 
is in the human mind inferring the law to be, that watei 
boils at 212° in every altitude; when the real law is onlj 
that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the sea, ii 



36 ON NATUBAL LAWS. 

all countries — and that it boils at a lower temperature the 
higher it is carried, because then the pressure of the at- 
mosphere is less. 

Intelligent beings are capable of observing nature and 
of modifying their actions. By means of their faculties, 
the laws impressed by the Creator on physical substances 
become known to them; and, when perceived, constitute 
laws to them, by which to regulate their conduct. For 
example, it is a physical law, that boiling water destroys 
the muscular and nervous systems of man. This is the 
result purely of the constitution of the body, and the re- 
lation between it and heat ; and man cannot alter or sus- 
pend the law. But whenever the relation, and the con- 
sequences of disregarding it, are perceived, the mind is 
prompted to avoid infringement, in order to shun the tor- 
ture attached by the Creator to the decomposition of the 
human body by heat. 

Similar views have long been taught by philosophers 
and divines. Bishop Butler, in particular, says : — "An 
Author of Nature being supposed, it is not so much a de- 
duction of reason as a matter of experience, that we are 
thus under his government : under his government in the 
same sense as we are under the government of civil 
magistrates. Because the annexing pleasure to some 
actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or forbear, 
and giving notice of this appointment beforehand to those 
whom it concerns, is the proper formal notion of government. 
Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows upon 
our behaviour be owing to the Author of Nature's acting 
upon us every moment which we feel it, or to his having 
at once contrived and executed his own part in the plan 
of the world, makes no alteration as to the matter before 
us. For, if civil magistrates could make the sanctions 
of their laws take place, without interposing at all after 
they had passed them, without a trial and the formalities 
of an execution; if they were able to make their laws ex- 
ecute themselves, or every offender to execute them upon 
himself, we should be just in the same sense under their 
government then as we are now ; but in a much higher 
degree and more perfect manner. Vain is the ridicule 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 37 

with which one foresees some persons will divert them- 
selves, upon finding lesser pains considered as instances 
of divine punishment. There is no possibility of answer- 
ing or evading the general thing here intended, without 
denying all final causes. For, final causes being admit- 
ted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be ad- 
mitted too, as instances of them. And if they are, if God 
annexes delight to some actions and uneasiness to others, 
with an apparent design to induce us to act so and so, 
then he not only dispenses happiness and misery, but 
also rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the 
pain which we feel upon doing what tends to the destruc- 
tion of our bodies, suppose upon too near approaches to 
fire, or upon wounding ourselves, be appointed by the 
Author of Nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to 
our destruction; this is altogether as much an instance 
of his punishing our actions, and consequently of our 
being under his government, as declaring, by a voice from 
heaven, that if we acted so, he would inflict such pain 
upon us, and inflicting it whether it be greater or less."* 

If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the crea- 
tor; that Nature, in the general sense, means the world 
which he has made — and, in a more limited sense, the 
particular constitution which he has bestowed on any 
special object, of which we may be treating; — and that 
a Law of Nature means the established mode in which 
the actions and phenomena of any creature or object ex- 
hibit themselves, and the obligations thereby imposed 
on intelligent beings to attend to it — he will be in no 
danger of misunderstanding my meaning. 

Every natural object has received a definite constitu- 
tion, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There 
must, therefore, be as many natural laws, as there are 
distinct modes of action of substances and beings, viewed 
by themselves. But substances and beings stand in cer- 
tain relations to each other, and modify each other's ac- 
tion, in an established and definite manner, according to 

•Butler's Works, vol. i. p. 44. The remarks of other authors m 
the Laws of Nature will be found in the Appendix, No. I, 
4 



38 ON NATURAL LAWS 

that relationship; altitude, for instance, modifies the ef- 
fect of heat upon water. There must, therefore, be also 
as many laws of nature as there are relations between 
different substances and beings. 

It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to 
elucidate all these laws : numberless years may elapse 
Defore they shall be discovered ; but we may investigate 
some of the most familiar and striking of them. Those 
that most readily present themselves bear reference to 
the great classes into which the objects around us may be 
divided, namely, Physical, 1 Organic, and Intelligent. I 
ehall therefore confine myself to the physical laws, the 
organic laws, and the laws which characterize intelligent 
beings. 

\st, The Physical Laws embrace all the phenomena of 
mere matter: a heavy body, for instance, when unsup- 
ported, falls to the ground with a certain accelerating 
force, in proportion to the distance which it falls, and its 
own density ; and this motion is said to take place accord- 
ing to the law. of gravitation. An acid applied to a vege- 
table blue colour, converts it into red, and this is said to 
take place according to a chemical law. 

2dly, Organized substances and beings stand higher in 
the scale of creation, and have properties peculiar to 
themselves. They act, and are acted upon, in conform- 
ity with their constitution, and are therefore said to bo 
subject to a peculiar set of laws, termed the Organic. 
The distinguishing characteristic of this class of objects 
is, that the individuals of them derive their existence 
from other organized beings, are nourished by food, and 
go through a regular process of growth and decay. Vege 
tables and Animals are the two great subdivisions of it 
The organic laws are different from the merely physical 
a stone, for example, does not spring from a parent 
stone ; it does not take food ; it does not increase in vigor 
for a time, and then decay and suffer dissolution — all 
which processes characterize vegetables and animals. 

The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. 
a living man or animal, may be placed in an oven, 
along with the carcass of a dead animal, and remain 



OK VA.TURAL LAWS. 39 

exposed to a heat which will completely bake the dead 
flesh, and yet come out alive, and not seriously injured. 
The dead flesh is mere physical matter, and its decom 
position oy the heat instantly commences ; but the living 
animal is able, by its organic qualities, to counteract 
and resis:* to a certain extent, that influence. The Or- 
ganic Laws, therefore, mean the established modes ac 
cording to which all phenomena connected with the pro 
duction, health, growth, decay, and death, of vegetables 
and animals, take place. In the case of each animal or 
vegetable of the same kind, their action is always the 
same, in the same circumstances. Animals are the chief 
objects of my present observations. 

3dly, Intelligent beings s^and yet higher in the scale 
than merely organized matter, and embrace all animals 
that have distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the 
inferior creatures up to man. The two great divisions 
of this class are Intelligent and Animal — and Intelligent 
and Moral creatures . The dog, horse, and elephant, for 
instance, belong to the former class, because they pos- 
sess some degree of intelligence, and certain animal pro- 
pensities, but no moral feelings ; man belongs to the 
second, because he posesses all the three. These vari- 
ous faculties have received a definite constitution, and 
stand in determinate relationship to external objects : 
for example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood 
sweet, nor sugar bitter ; a healthy eye cannot see a rod 
partly plunged in water straight — because the water so 
modifies the rays of light, as to give to the stick the ap- 
pearance of being crooked ; a healthy sentiment of Be- 
nevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a heal- 
thy Conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, tho 
mental facilities have received a precise constitution 
have been placed in fixed and definite relations to exter 
nal objects, and act regularly; — we speak of their acting 
according to rules or laws, and call these the moral and 
Intellectual Laws. 

Several important principles strike us very early in 
attending to the natural laws, viz. 1st, Their indepen- 
dence of each tther ; 2dly, That obedience to each of them 



40 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with 
its own punishment ; 3dly, That they are universal, un- 
bending, and invariable in their operation; 4thly, That 
they are in harmony with the constitution of man. 

1 . The independence of the natural laws may be illu? 
trated thus :— A ship floats because a part of it being 
immersed displaces a weight of water equal to its whole 
weight, leaving the remaining portion above the fluid. 
k ship, therefore, will float on the surface of the water 
as long as these physical conditions are observed; no 
matter, although the men in it should infringe other na- 
tural laws — as, for example, although they should rob, 
murder, blaspheme, and commit every species of de- 
bauchery : and it will sink whenever the physical con- 
ditions are subverted, however strictly the crew and 
passengers may obey the moral laws. In like manner, 
a man who swallows poison, which destroys the stomach 
or intestines, will die, just because an organic law has 
been infringed, and because it acts independently of 
others ; although he should have taken the drug by mis- 
take, or have been the most pious and charitable indi- 
vidual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, 
steal, tyrannize, and, in short, break a great variety of 
the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if 
he seduously observe the organic laws of temperance 
and exercise; while, on the other hand, an individual 
who neglects these, may pine in disease, and be racked 
with torturing pains, although at the very moment he 
may be devoting his mind to the highest duties of hu- 
manity. 

2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own reward, 
and disobedience with its own, punishment. Thus, the mari- 
ners who preserve their ship in accordance with the 
physical laws, reap the reward of sailing in safety; and 
those who permit a departure from them, are punished 
by the ship sinking. People who obey the moral law, 
enjoy the intense internal delights that spring from active 
moral faculties; they render themselves, moreover, ob- 
jects of affection and esteem to moral and intelligent 
beings, who, in consequence, confer on them many other 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 41 

gratifications. Those who disobey that law, are tor- 
mented by insatiable desires, which, from the natuie of 
tnings, cannot be gratified ; they are punished by ttie 
perpetual craving of whatever portion of moral senti- 
ment they possess, for higher enjoyments, which are 
never attained; and they are objects of dislike and 
malevolence to other beings of similar dispositions with 
themselves, who inflict on them the evils dictated by 
their own provoked propensities. Those who obey the 
organic laws, reap the reward of health and vigoi of 
body, and buoyancy of mind ; while those who break 
them are punished by sickness, feebleness, langour, and 
pain. 

3. The natural laws are universal, invariable, an r ) ten- 
bending. When the physical laws are infringed in China 
or Kamtschatka, there is no instance of a ship floating 
there more than in England ; and when they are obser- 
ved, there is no instance of a vessel sinking in any one 
of these countries more than another. There is no ex- 
ample of men, in any country, enjoying the mild and ge- 
nerous internal joys, and the outward esteem and love, 
that attend obedience to the moral law, while they give 
themselves up to the dominion of brutal propensities. 
There is no example, in any latitude or longitude, or in 
any age, of men who entered life with a constitution in 
harmony with the organic laws, and who continued to 
obey these laws throughout, being, in consequence of 
this obedience, visited with pairl and disease ; and there 
are no instances of men who were born with constitutions 
marred by the organic laws, and who lived in habitual 
disobedience to them, enjoying that sound health and 
vigor of body that are the rewards of obedience. 

4. The natural laws are in harmony with the whole con- 
stitution of man, the moral and intellectual powers hol- 
ding the supremacy. If ships in general had sunk 
when they were staunch, strong, and skilfully managed, 
this would have outraged the perceptions of reason; but 
as they float, the physical law is, in this instance, in 
harmony with the moral and intellectual law. If men 
who rioted in drunkenness and debauchery had thereby 

4* 



42 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

established health and increased their happiness, this 
again, would have been at variance with our intellectual 
and moral perceptions ; but the opposite and actual re- 
sult is in harmony with them. 

It will be subsequently shown, that our moral senti- 
ments desire universal happiness. If the physical and 
organic laws are constituted in harmony with them, it 
ought to follow that the natural laws, when obeyed, will 
conduce to the happiness of the moral and intelligent 
beings who are called on to observe them ; and that the 
evil consequences, or punishments, resulting from in- 
fringement of them, will be calculated to enforce stricter 
obedience, for the advantage of those creatures themsel. 
ves. According to this view, when a ship sinks, in con- 
sequence of a plank starting, the punishment is intend- 
ed to impress upon the spectators the absolute necessity 
of having every plank secure and strong before going to 
sea, this being a condition indispensable to their safety. 
When sickness and pain follow a debauch, the object of 
the suffering is to urge a more scrupulous obedience to 
the organic laws, that the individual may escape prema- 
ture death, which is the inevitable consequence of too 
great and continued disobedience to these laws— and en- 
joy health, which is the reward of the opposite conduct. 

When discontent, irritation, hatred, and other mental 
annoyances, arise out of infringement of the moral law, 
this punishment is calculated to induce the offender to 
return to obedience, that he may enjoy the rewards 
attached to it. 

When the transgression of any natural law is exces- 
sive, and so great that return to obedience is impossible, 
one purpose of death, which then ensues, may be to de- 
liver the individual from a continuation of the punish- 
ment which could then do him no good. Thus, when, 
from infringment of a physical law, a ship sinks at sea, 
and leaves men immersed in water, without the possibi- 
lity of reaching land, their continued existence in that 
state would be one of cruel and protracted suffering ; and 
it is advantageous to them to have their lives extinguish 
td at once by drowning, thereby withdrawing them from 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 43 

further agony. In like manner, if a man in the vigor of 
life so far infringe any organic law as to destroy the 
function of a vital organ — the heart, for instance, or the 
lungs, or the brain— it is better for him to have his life 
cut short, and his pain put an end to, than to have it pro- 
tracted under all the tortures of an organic existence, 
without lungs, without a heart, or without a brain, if 
such a state were possible, which, for this wise reason, 
t is not. 

I do not intend to predicate any thing concerning th« 
absolute perfectibility of man by obedience to the laws 
of nature. The system of sublunary creation, so far as 
we perceive it, does not appear to be one of optimism ; 
yet benevolent design, in its constitution, is undeniable. 
Paley says, "Nothing remains but the supposition, that 
God, when he created the human species, wished them 
happiness, and made for them the provisions which he 
has made, with that view and for that purpose. The 
same argument may be proposed in different terms ; 
Contrivance proves design ; and the predominant ten- 
dency of the contrivance indicates the position of the de- 
signer. The world abounds with contrivances ; and all 
the contrivances which we are acquainted with, are di- 
rected to beneficial perposes," — Paley's Mor. Phil., 
Edin, 1816, p. 51.) Many of the contrivances of the 
Creator, for effecting beneficial purposes, have been dis- 
covered by philosophers ; but, so far as I am aware, no 
one has adverted to the foregoing principles according 
to which these contrivances operate, so that nothing like 
a systematic view of the moral government of the world 
has hitherto been presented to mankind. 

Neither do I intend to teach that the natural laws, dis- 
cernible by unassisted reason, are sufficient for the sal- 
vation of man without revelation. Human interests re- 
gard this world and the next. To enjoy this world, I 
humbly maintain that man must discover and obey the 
natural laws. Revelation does not communicate complete 
information concerning the best mode of pursuing even 
our legitimate temporal interests ; and numerous practi- 
cal duties resulting from our constitution are discovera 



44 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

bie, which are not treated of in detail in the inspired 
volume — the mode of preserving health, for example ; of 
pursuing with success a temporal calling ; of discovering 
the qualities of men with whom we mean to associate 
our interests; and so on. This is the case, probably 
because faculties have been given to man to discover 
arts, sciences, and the natural laws, and to adapt his 
conduct to them ; and because the physical, moral, and 
intellectual nature of man, is itself leff open to investi- 
gation by these faculties. My object, I repeat, is to in- 
vestigate the natural constitution of the human body and 
mind, their relations to external objects and beings in 
this world, and the courses of action that, in consequence 
appear to be beneficial or hurtful in this life. 

Man's spiritual interests belong to the sphere of re- 
velation; and I distinctly repeat, that I do not teach 
that obedience to the natural laws is sufficient for salva- 
tion in a future state. Revelation prescribes certain re- 
quisites for salvation, which may be divided into two 
classes — first, faith or belief; and, secondly, the perfor- 
mances of certain practical duties, not as entitling to 
salvation, but as the native result of that faith, and the 
necessary evidence of its sincerity. The natural laws 
form no guide as to faith ; but, as far as I can perceive, 
their dictates and those of revelation coincide in all mat- 
ters relating to practical duties in temporal affairs. 

It may be asked, whether mere knowledge of the natu- 
ral laws is sufficient to insure observance of them ? 
Certainly not. Mere knowledge of music does not enable 
one to play on an instrument, nor of anatomy to perform 
skilfully a surgical operation. Practical training, and 
the aid of every motive that can interest the feelings, 
are necessary to lead individuals to obey the natural 
laws. Religion, in particular, may furnish motives high 
ly conducive to this obedience. But it must never be 
forgotten, that although mere knowledge is not all-sufti 
cient, it is a primary and indispensable requisite to 
regular observance ; and that it is as impossible effec- 
tually and systematically to obey the natural laws 
without knowing them, as it is to perform any other com 



ON NATURAL LAWS. 40 

plicated and important duty in ignorance of its principles 
and practical details. Some persons are of opinion that 
Christianity alone suffices, not only for man's salvation— 
which I do not dispute — but for his guidance in all prac- 
tical virtues, without knowledge of, or obedience to, the 
laws of nature; but from this notion I respectfully dis 
sent. It appears to me, that one reason why vice and 
misery do not diminish in proportion to preaching, is, 
that the natural laws are too much overlooked, and very 
rarely considered as having any relation to human con- 
duct. The theological doctrine of the corruption ana dis- 
order of human nature, joined to the want of knowledge 
of real science, have probably been the causes why the 
professed servants of God have made so little use of his 
laws, as revealed in creation, in instructing the people to 
live according to his will. Before religion can yield its 
full practical fruits in this world, it must be adapted to a 
philosophy founded on those laws ; it must borrow light 
and strength from them, and in return communicate its 
powerful sanction in enforcing obedience to their dictates. 
Connected with this subject, it is proper to state, that 
I do not maintain that the world is arranged on the prin- 
ciple of benevolence exclusively: my idea is, that it is 
constituted in harmony with the whole faculties of man ; 
the moral sentiments and intellect holding the supremacy. 
What is meant by creation being constituted in harmony 
with the whole faculties of man, may be illustrated thus : 
—Suppose that we should see two men holding a third 
in a chair, and a fourth drawing a tooth from his head. 
While we contemplated this bare act, and knew nothing 
of the intention with which it was done, and of the con- 
sequences that would follow, we would set it down as 
purely cruel, and say, that, although it might accord with 
the propensity which prompts men to inflict pain and des 
troy, it could not harmonize with Benevolence. But 
when we are told that the individual in the chair was a 
patient and the operator a dentist, and that the object of 
all the parties was to deliver the first from violent torture, 
we would then perceive that an operation attended with 
pain had been used as a means to accomplish a beneva- 



46 ON NATURAL LAWS. 

lent purpooe — or, in other words, that the operator had 
acted under the supremacy of moral sentiment and intel- 
lect — and we would approve of his conduct. If the 
world had been created on the principle of Benevolence 
exclusively, the toothache could not have existed ; but 
as pain does exist, a mental faculty, called by the phre- 
nologists Destructiveness, has been given to place man 
in harmony with its existence, when used for a benevolent 
end. 

To apply this illustration to the works of Providence, 
I humbly suggest it as probable, that, if we knew 
thoroughly the design and whole consequences of such 
institutions of the Creator as are attended with pain, in- 
cluding death itself, we should find that infliction is usee 
as a means, subservient to Benevolence and Justice, tt 
arrive at an end in harmony with the moral sentiments 
and intellect; in short, that no institution of the Creatoi 
has pure evil, or destruction alone, for its object. "Ir 
maturity of sense and understanding/' says Lord Karnes, 
"benevolence appears more and more ; and beautiful final 
causes are discovered in many of nature's productions, 
that formerly were thought useless, or perhaps hurtful i 
and the time may come — we have solid ground to hope 
that it will come — when doubts and difficulties about the 
government of Providence will all of them be cleared up. 
and every event be found conducive to the general 
good."* 

The opposite of this doctrine, viz. that there are insti 
tutions of the Creator which have suffering for their ex 
elusive object, is clearly untenable ; for this would b« 
ascribing malevolence to the Deity. As, however, the ' 
existence of pain is undeniable, it is equally impossible 
to believe that the world is arranged on the principle a 
Benevolence exclusively. The view now presented makes 
no attempt to explain why pain or evil exists, because * 
consider this inquiry to surpass the limits of the humai 
understanding. It offers an explanation, however, o 
the use which pain serves — that of enforcing o<bedienc« 

♦Sketches, B. 3, Sk. 3, ch. 2. 



ON TUB CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 47 

fc> the natural laws; and it shows that the human mind 
is constituted in harmony with this order of creation* 
Phrenology alone, of all systems of mental philosophy 
admits faculties clearly related to difficulty, pain, ana 
death, and thus enhances our perceptions of divine wis- 
dom and goodness. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON THB CONSTITUTION OP MAN, AND ITS RELATION TO EXTEB- 
NAL OBJECTS. 

Let us next consider the Constitution of Man, and the 
natural laws to which he is subjected, and endeavor to 
discover how far the external world is arranged with wis- 
dom and benevolence in regard to him. Bishop Butler, 
in the preface to his Sermons, says, " It is from consider- 
ing the relations which the several appetites and pas- 
sions in the inward frame have to each other, and, above 
all, the supremacy of reflection or conscience, that we get 
the idea of the system or constitution of human nature. 
And from the idea itself it will as fully appear, that this 
our nature i. e. constitution, is adapted to virtue, as from 
the idea of a watch it appears that its nature, i.e. con- 
stitution or system, is adapted to measure time. 

"Mankind has various instincts and principles of 
action, as brute creatures have; some leading most 
directly and immediately to the good of the community, 
and some most directly to private good. 

"Man has several which brutes have not; particu- 
larly reflection or conscience, an approbation of some 
principles or actions, and disapprobation of others. 

" Brutes obey their instincts or principles of action, 
according to certain rules ; suppose the constitution of 
their body, and the objects around them. 

" The generality of mankind also obey their instincts 
and principles, all of them ; those propensions we caU 



48 ON THE CONSTITUTION OP MAN, 

good, as we\i as the bad, according to the same rules, 
namely, the constitution of their body, and the external 
circumstances which they are in. 

" Brutes, in acting according to the rules before men- 
tioned, their bodily constitution and circumstances, act 
suitably to their whole nature. 

"Mankind also, in acting thus, would act suitably to 
their whole nature, if no more were to be said of man's 
nature than what has been now said ; if that, as it is a 
true, were also a complete, adequate account of our 
nature. 

" But that is not a complete account of man's nature. 
Somewhat further must be brought in to give us an 
adequate notion of it ; namely, that one of those princi- 
ples of action, conscience, or refection, compared with the 
rest, as they all stand together in the nature of man, 
plainly bears upon it marks of authority over all the rest, and 
claims the absolute direction of them all, to allow or forbid 
their gratification ; — a disapprobation on reflection being 
in itself a principle manifestly superior to a mere propen- 
sion. And the conclusion is, that to allow no more to 
this superior principle or part of our nature, than to 
other parts ; to let it govern and guide only occasionally, 
in common with the rest, as its turn happens to come 
from the temper and circumstances one happens to be 
in : tliis is not to act conformably to the constitution of man; 
neither can any human creature be said to act conforma- 
bly to his constitution of nature, unless he allows to that 
superior principle the absolute authority which is due to 
it." — Butler's Works, vol. ii, Preface. The present trea- 
tise is in a great measure founded on the principles here 
suggested. 

SBCT. I. MAN CONSIDERED AS A PHYSICAL BEING. 

The human body consists of bones, muscles, nerves, 
and blood vessels, besides organs of nutrition, of repro 
duction, of respiration, of feeling, and of thought. These 
parts are all composed of physical elements, and to a 
certain extent, are subjected to the physical laws of crea 



AND ITS RELATION'S TO EXTERNAL 0BJETTT8. 49 

tion. By the law of gravitation, the body falls to the 
ground when unsupported, and is liable to be injured 
like any frangible substance ; by a chemical law, exces- 
sive cold freezes, and excessive heat dissipates, its fluids ; 
and life, in either case, is extinguished. 

To discover the real effect of the physical laws of na- 
ture on human happiness, we would require to understand 
1st, The physical laws themselves, as revealed by ma- 
thematics, natural philosophy, natural history, chemis- 
try, and their subordinate branches ; 2dly, The anatomi- 
cal and physiological constitution of the human body ; 
and, 3dly, The adaption of the former to the latter. These 
expositions are necessary to ascertain the extent to which 
it is possible for man to place himself in accordance with 
the physical laws, so as to reap advantage from them; 
and also to determine how far the sufferings which he 
endures fall to be ascribed to the inevitable operation of 
these laws, and how far to his ignorance and infringe- 
ment of them. In the subsequent pages, this subject 
will be treated somewhat in detail : at present I confine 
myself to a single instance as an illustration of the 
mode in which the investigation ought to be conduc- 
ted* 

By the law of gravitation, heavy bodies always tend 
towards the centre of the earth. Some of the advanta- 
ges of this law are, that objects, when properly suppor- 
ted, remain at rest; that walls, when built sufficiently 
thick and perpendicular, stand firm and erect ; that 
water descends from high places, and precipitates itself 
down the channels of rivers, turns mill-wheels in its 
course, and sets in motion the most stupendous and use- 
ful machinery; and that ships move steadily through 
the water with part of their hulls immersed and part 
rising moderately above it, and their masts and sails 
towering in the air to catch the inconstant breeze. 

To place man in harmony with this law, the Creatoi 

*The reader will find many valuable illustrations of these laws ii 
"The Principles of Physiology applied to the Preservation or Health 
and to the Improvement of Physical and Mental Education," by An 
brew Combe, M. D Third ed'ition. MaclachUn & Stewart, Ediiv 
durgh ; and Simpkin, Marshall, <£ Co. London. 

4 5 



50 MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 

has bestowed on him bones, muscles, and nerves, con 
structed on the most perfect principles, which enable 
him to preserve his equilibrium, and to adapt his move- 
ments to gravitation ; also intellectual faculties, calcu- 
lated to perceive the existence of the law, its modes of 
operation, the relation between it and himself, the bene- 
icial consequences of observing this relation, and the 
gainful results of disregarding it. 

When a person falls over a precipice, and is maimed 
vr killed — when a ship springs a leak and sinks — or 
**hen a resevoir of water breaks down its banks and 
lavages a valley — the evils, no doubt, proceed from the 
operation of this law ; but we ought to inquire whether 
they could or could not have been prevented, by a due 
exercise wi the physical and mental powers bestowed by 
the Creator on man, to enable him to avoid the injurious 
effects of gravitation. 

By pursuing this course, we shall arrive at sound con- 
clusions concerning the adaption of the human mind and 
body to the physical laws of creation. The subject is 
too extensive to bb here prosecuted in all its details, and 
I am incompetent, besides, to do it justice ; but enough 
has been said to elucidate the principle contended for. 
And the more minutely any one inquires, the more firm 
will be his conviction, that, in these relations, admirable 
provision has been made by the Creator for human hap- 
piness, and that the evils which arise from neglect of 
them, are attributable, to a great extent, to man's not 
adequately applying his powers to the promotion of his 
•wn enjoyment. 

SECT. II. MAN CONSIOERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEINO. 

Man is an organized being, and subject to the organic 
laws. An organized being, as was formerly noticed, is 
•ne which derives its existence from a previously existing 
irganized being, which subsists on food, which grows, 
attains maturity, decays, and dies. The Jirst law, then, 
*hat must be obeyed, to render an organized being perfect 
*i its kind, is, that the germ from which it springs shall 



MAX CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEING. 51 

be complete in all its parts, and sound in its whole con- 
stitution. If we sow an acorn in which some vital part 
has been destroyed altogether, the seedling plant, and 
the full-grown oak, if it ever attain to maturity, will be 
deficient in the lineaments which are wanting in the em- 
bryo root ; if we sow an acorn entire in its parts, but 
only half ripened, or damaged in its whole texture by 
damp or other causes, the seedling oak will be feeble, 
and will probably die early. A similar law holds in re- 
gard to man. A second organic law is, that the organized 
being, the moment it is ushered into life, and so long as 
it continues to live, must be supplied with food, light, 
air, and every other physical element requisite for its 
support, in due quantity, and of the kind best suited to 
its particular constitution. Obedience to this law is re- 
warded with a vigorous and healthy development of its 
powers, and, in animals, with a pleasing consciousness 
of existence, and aptitude for the performance of their 
natural functions ; disobedience is punished with feeble- 
ness, stinted growth, general imperfection, or early 
death. A single fact will illustrate this observation. 
At the meeting of the British Association, held in Edin- 
burgh in 1834, there was read an Abstract, by Dr. Joseph 
Clarke, of a Registry kept in the Lying-in Hospital of 
Great Britain Street, Dublin, from the year 1758 to the 
end of 1833, from which it appeared, that, in 1781, when 
the hospital was imperfectly ventilated, every sixth 
child died within nine days after birth of convulsive dis 
ease, and that, after means of thorough ventilation had 
been adopted, the mortality of infants, within the same 
time, in five succeeding years, was reduced to nearly 
one in twenty.* A third organic law, applicable to man, 
is, that he shall duly exercise his organs, this condition 
being an indispensable prerequisite of health. The re- 
ward of obedience to this law, is enjoyment in the very 
act of exercising the functions, pleasing consciousness of 
existence, and the acquisition of numberless gratifica- 
tions and advantages, of which labour, or the exercise 

New Phil. Jour., Oct. 1834, p. 416. 



52 MAN CONSIDERED AS AH ORGANIZED BEING. 

of our powers, is tne procuring means ; disobedience is 
punished with derangement and sluggishness of the 
functions, with general uneasiness or positive pain, and 
with the denial of gratification to numerous faculties. 

Directing our attention to the constitution of the hu- 
man body, we perceive that the power of reproduction is 
bestowed on man, and also intellect to enable him to dis- 
cover and obey the conditions necessary for the trans- 
mission of a healthy organic frame to his descendants » 
that digestive organs are given to him for his nutrition, 
and thiU innumerable vegetable and animal productions 
are placed around him, in wise relationship to these 
organs* 

Without attempting to expound minutely the organic 
structure of man, or to trace in detail its adaptation to 
his external condition, I shall ofier some observations in 
support of the proposition, that the due exercise of the 
osseous, muscular, and nervous systems, under the guid- 
ance of intellect and moral sentiment, and in accordance 
with the physical laws, contributes to human enjoyment ; 
and that neglect of this exercise, or an abuse of it, by 
carrying it to excess, or by conducting it in opposition to 
the moral, intellectual, or physical laws, is punished 
• v. ith pain. 

The earth is endowed with the capability of producing 
an ample supply of food, provided we expend muscular 
and nervous energy in its cultivation; while, in most 
climates, it refuses to produce, if we withhold this labour 
and allow it to lie waste ; Further, the Creator has pre- 
sented us with timber, metal, wool, and countless 
materials, which, by means of muscular power, may be 
converted into dwelling-places, clothing, and all the lux- 
uries of life. The fertility of the earth, and the de- 
mands of the body for food and clothing, are so benevo- 
lently adapted to each other, that, with rational res- 
traint on population, a few hours' labour each day from 
every individual capable of working, would suffice to 
furnisk all with every commodity that could really add 
to enjoyment. "It has been computed," says Dr. 
Franklin, "by some political arithmetician, that, if every 



MAN CONSIDERED A8 AN ORGANIZED ?EING. 53 

man and woman would work for four hours each day on 
something useful, that labour would be sufficient to pro- 
cure all the necessaries and comforts of life ; want and 
misery would be banished out of the world ; and the 
rest of the twenty-four hours might be leisure and plea- 
sure.' ' — ' Essay an Luxury, Idleness, and Industry.) 

In the the tropical regions of the giobe, where a high 
atmospheric temperature diminishes the quantum of mus 
cular energy, the fertility and productiveness of the so : 
are increased in like proportion, so that less labour 
suffices. Less labour, also, is required to provide habi- 
tations and raiment. In the colder latitudes, muscular 
energy is greatly increased, and there much higher de- 
mands are made upon it ; the earth is more sterile, and 
the piercing frosts render necessary a thicker covering for 
the body. 

Further, the food afforded by the soil in each climate 
appears to be adapted to the maintenance of the organic 
constitution of the people in health, and to the supply of 
the muscular energy necessary for the particular wants 
of the situation. In the Arctic Regions no farinaceous 
food ripens; but on the question being put. to Dr. Rich- 
ardson, how he, accustomed to the bread and vegetables 
of the temperate regions, was able to endure the pure 
animal diet, which formed his only support on his expe- 
dition to the shores of the Polar Sea along with Captain 
Franklin, he replied, that the effect of the extreme dry 
cold to which he and his companions were constantly ex 
posed — living, as they did, in the open air — was to pro- 
duce a desire for the most stimulating food they could ob- 
tain; that bread in such a climate was not only not de- 
sired, but comparatively impotent, as an article of diet ; 
that pure animal food, and the fatter the better, was the 
only sustenance that maintained the tone of the corporeal 
system ; but that when it was abundant (and the quan 
tity required was much greater than in milder latitudes,) 
a delightful vigour and buoyancy of mind and body were 
enjoyed, that rendered life highly agreeable. Now, in 
beautiful harmony with these wants of the human frame, 
these regions abound, during summer, in countless herds 
5* 



54 MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ORGANIZED BEI» , 

of deer, in rabbits, partridges, ducks, and, in short, ev<j, f 
sort of game, and»also in fish ; and the flesh of these, 
dried, constitutes delicious food in winter, when the earth 
is wrapped in one wide mantle of snow. 

Among the Greenlanders and other Esquimaux tribes, 
nothing is so much relished as the fat of the whale, the 
seal, or the walrus : a tallow candle and a draught of 
train oil are regarded as dainties ; while a piece of bread 
is spit out with strong indications of disgust. 

In Scotland, the climate is moist and moderately cold ; 
the greater part of the surface is mountainous, and well 
adapted for rearing sheep and cattle ; while a certain 
portion consists of fertile plains, fitted for raising farina- 
ceous food. If the same law holds in this country, the 
diet of the people should consist of animal and farinace- 
ous food, the former predominating ; and on such food, 
accordingly, the Scotsman thrives best. As we proceed 
to warmer latitudes, to France for instance, we find the 
soil and temperature less congenial to sheep and cattle, 
but more favourable to corn and wine ; and the French- 
man flourishes in health on less of animal food than 
would be requisite to preserve the Scottish Highlander, 
in the recesses of his mountains, in a strong and alert 
condition. From one of a series of interesting letters on 
the agriculture of France by M. Lullin de Chateauvieux, 
published in the Bibliotheque Universelle, it appears 
that the consumption of beef in that country relative to 
the population, is only one-sixth of what it is in England. 
(Journal of Agriculture, No. iii. p. 390.) 

The plains of Hindustan are too hot for the extensive 
rearing of the sheep and the ox, but produce rice and 
vegetable spices in prodigious abundance ; and the na- 
tive is healthy, vigorous, and active, when supplied with 
rice and curry, and becomes sick when obliged to live 
chiefly on animal diet. He is supplied with less muscu 
lar energy by this species of food ; but his soil and cli- 
mate require far less laborious exertion to maintain him 
in comfort, than those of Britain, Germany, or Russia. 

So far, then, the external world appears to be wisely 
and benevolently adapted to the organic system of man ; 



MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL. S5 

that is, to his nutrition, and to the developement and ex- 
ercise of his corporeal organs. The natural law appears 
to be, that every one who desires to enjoy the pleasures 
of health, must expend in labour the energy which the 
Creator has infused into his limbs. A wide choice is left 
to man, as to the mode in which he shall exercise his ner- 
vous and muscular systems ; The labourer, for example, 
digs the ground, and the squire engages in the chase ; 
both pursuits exercise the body. The penalty for ne- 
glecting this law is imperfect digestion and disturbed 
sleep debility, bodily and mental lassitude, and, if 
carried to a certain length, confirmed bad health and 
early death. The penalty for over-exerting these sys- 
tems is exhaustion, mental incapacity, the desire of 
strong artificial sdmulants (such as ardent spirits,) gene 
ral insensibility, grossness of feeling and perception, 
with disease and shortened life. 

Society has not recognized this law; and, in conse- 
quence, the higher orders despise labour and suffer the 
first penalty, while the lower orders are oppressed with 
toil and undergo the second. The penalties serve to 
provide motives for obedience to the law ; and whenever 
it is recognized, and the consequences are discovered to 
be inevitable, men will no longer shun labour as painful 
and ignominious, but resort to it as a source of pleasure 
and advantage.* 

SECT. III. MAN CONSIDERED AS AN ANIMAL, MORAL AND 

INTELLECTUAL BEING. 

I have adverted to the bodily constitution of man, 
which is essentially animal ; but I observe, in the third 
place, that man, viewed in regard to his mental consti- 
tution, is an animal, moral, and intellectual being. To 
discover the adaption of the mental parts of his nature 
to his external circumstances, we must first know what 
are his various animal, moral, and intellectual powers 
themselves. Phrenology gives us a view of them, drawn 
from observation; and as I have verified the inductions 

* See Appendix, No. II 



56 MORAL, AND INTELLECTUAL BEING. 

of that science, so as to satisfy myself that it is the 
most complete anjl correct exposition of the nature of 
man which has yet been given, I adopt its classification 
of faculties as the basis of the subsequent observations. 
One great advantage presented by Phrenology, is the 
light which it throws on the natural constitution of the 
mind. Philosophers and divines have long disputed 
about the number and functions of the human faculties ; 
and while each assumed his own consciousness as the 
standard of nature, and occupied himself chiefly with ob- 
servations on its phenomena, as his means of study, there 
could be no end to their discussions. But the organs of 
the mind can be seen and felt, and their size estimated — 
and the mental manifestations also that accompany 
them can be observed, in an unlimited number of instan- 
ces — so that, assuming the existence of organs, it is clear 
that a far higher degree of certainty in regard to the na- 
tural endowments of the mind may be attained by these 
means, than by any other previously applied. It is dis- 
puted also whether man be now in posessionof the same 
qualities as those with which he was created ; but the 
fact of the organs having been bestowed by the Creator 
is not open to contradiction, if they exist at all ; and if 
we discover their functions and their uses, and distin- 
guish these from their abuses, we shall obviously obtain 
clearer views of what God has instituted, and of the ex- 
tent to which man himself is chargeable with error and 
perversion, than could be arrived at by the means hither- 
to employed. Such conclusions, if correctly drawn, will 
possess an irresistible authority— that of the record of 
creation itself. If, therefore, any reader be disposed to 
question the existence of such qualities in man as I am 
about to describe, he must, to do so consistently, be pre- 
pared to deny, on reasonable grounds, that mental 
organs exist — or, if he allows their existence, he must 
establish that the observations of phrenologists in regard 
to them are incorrect, or their inferences regarding their 
functions erroneously deduced. According to Phrenolo- 
gy, then, the humau faculties are the following. The 



MENTAL FACULTIES OF MAN. 51 

organs are double, each faculty having two, lying in cor- 
responding situations of the hemispheres of the brain. 

Order 1. FEELINGS, 
denus I. PROPENSITIES— Common to Man with the Lower Ani- 
mals. 
THE LOVE OF LIFE. 

APPETITE FOR FOOD.— Uses: Nutrition.— Abuses: Gluttony and 
drunkenness. 

I. AMATIVENESS— Produces sexual love. 

J. PHILOPROGENITIVENESS.— Uses: Affection for young and 
tender beings — Abuses : Pampering and spoiling children. 

t. CONCENTRATIVENESS.— Uses: It gives the desire of perma- 
nence in place, and renders permanent emotions and ideas in the 
mind. — Abuses: Aversion to move abroad ; morbid dwelling on 
internal emotions and ideas ; to the neglect of external impres- 
sions. 

4. ADHESIVENESS— I Tses : Attachment; friendship and society 

result from it. — Abuses: Clanship for improper objects, attach- 
ment to worthless individuals. It is generally strong in women. 

5. COMBATIVENESS— Uses: Courage "to meet danger and over- 

come difficulties, tendency to oppose and attack whatever re» 
quires opposition, and to resist unjust encroachments. — Abuses: 
Love of contention, and tendency to provoke and assault This 
feeling obviously adapts man to a world in which danger and 
difficulty abound. 

6. DESTRUCT1VENESS.— Uses: Desire to destroy noxious objects, 

and to kill for food. It is very discernable in carnivorous ani- 
mals. — Abuses: Cruelty, murder, desire to torment, tendency to 
passion, rage, and harshness and severity in speech and writing. 
This feeling places man in harmony with death and destruction 
which are woven into the system of sublunary creation. 

7. SECRETIVENESS.— Uses: Tendency to restrain within the mind 

the various emotions and ideas that involuntarily present them* 
selves, until the judgment has approved of giving them utterance; 
it is simply the propensity to conceal, and is an ingredient in 
prudence. — Abuses: Cunning, deceit, duplicity, and lying. 

8. ACQUISITIVENESS. — Uses: Desire to possess, and tendency to 

accumulate articles of utility, to provide against want. — Abuses: 
Inordinate desire of property, selfishness, avarice, theft. 

9. CONSTRUCT1VENESS-— Uses: Desire to build tnd construct 

works of art. — Abuses: Construction of engines to injure or des- 
troy, and fabrication of objects to deceive mankind. 

Genus II. SENTIMENTS. 
Sentiments common to Man with the Lower Animals. 

10. SELF-ESTEEM.— Uses: Self-respect, self-interest, love of inde- 
pendence, personal dignity.— Abuses : Pride, disdain, overweening 
conceit, excessive selfishness, love of dominion. 

11. LOVE OF APPROBATION'. — Usts : Desire of the esteem of 



58 MENTAL FACULTIES oF MAN. 

others, love of praise, desire of fame or glory.— Abuses: Vanity, 
ambition, thirst for praise independently of praise-worthiness. 

IS. CAUTIOUSNESS.— Uses: It gives origin to the sentiment of 
fear, the desire to shun danger, and circumspection : and it is an 
ingredient in prudence. — Abuses: Excessive timidity, poltroonery* 
unfounded apprehension, despondency, melancholy. 

2«. BENEVOLENCE.— Uses : Des're of the happiness of others, 
universal charity, mildness of disposition, and a lively sympathy 
with the enjoyment of all animated beings — Abuses: Profusion, 
injurious indulgence of the appetites and fancies of others, pro- 
digality, facility of temper. 

II. Sentiments proper to Man, 

14. VENERATION.— Uses: Tendency to venerate or respect what- 
ever is great and good; gives origin to religious adoration. — 
Abuses: Senseless respect for unworthy objects consecrated by 
time or situation, love of antiquated customs, abject subservi- 
ency to persons in authority, superstitious awe. 

15. FIRMNESS. — Uses: Determination, perseverance, steadiness of 
purpose. — Abuses: Stubbornness, infatuation, tenacity in evil. 

16. CONSCIENTIOUSNESS— Uses: It gives origin to the senti- 
ment of justice, or respect for the rights of others, openness to 
conviction, the love of truth. — Abuses : Scrupulous adherence to 
noxious principles when ignorantly embraced, excessive refine- 
ment in the views of duty and obligation, excess in remorse or 
self-condemnation. 

17. HOPE. — Uses: Tendency to expect future good; it cherishes 
faith. — Abuses: Credulity with respect to the attainment of what 
is desired, absurd expectations of felicity not founded on reason, 

18. WONDER.— Uses: The desire of novelty; admiration of the 
new, the unexpected, the grand, the wonderful, and extraordinary, 
— Abuses: Love of the marvellous, and occult; senseless as- 
tonishment ; belief in false miracles, in prodigies, magic, ghosts, 
and other supernatural absurdities. — Note. Veneration, Hope, 
and Wonder, combined, give the tendency to religion ; theil 
abuses produce superstition. 

19. IDEALITY.— Uses: Love of the beautiful and splendid, desire 
of excellence, poetic feeling. — Abuses: Extravagance and absurd 
enthusiasm, preference of the showy and glaring to the solid and 
useful, a tendency to dwell in the regions of fancy and to neglect 
the duties of life. 

50. WIT.— Gives the feeling of the ludicrous, and disposes to mirth. 
11. IMITATION— Copies the manners, gestures, and actions of 
others, and appearances in nature generally. 

Order II. INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES. 
Genus I. EXTERNAL SENSES. 
. TXTn m/Yrrr'U ^ Uses: To bring ma& into communication with 
TASTF ° r | external objects, and to enable him to en- 

«ivrirTT joy them. — Abutis: Excessive indulgences 

mrAPTxrn I m tne P leasure ® ^arising from the senses, 

SirHT to the extent of impaling bodily health, 

SIGHT J mn d debilitating or deteriorating the mind* 



MENTAL FACULTIE8 OF MAN. 54 

Genus II. KNOWING FACULTIES, WHICH PERCEIVE THE 
EXISTENCE AND QUALITIES OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

S8. INDIVIDUALITY.— Takes cognizance of existence and simple 
facts 

23. FORM. — Renders man observant of form. 

14. SIZE — Gives the idea of space, and enables us to appreciate di- 
mension and distance. 

95, WEIGHT.— Communicates the perception of momentum, weight 
and resistance ; and aids equilibrium. 

36. COLOURING.— Gives perception of colours and their harmo- 
nies 

Genus III. KNOWING FACULTIES WHICH PERCEIVE THE 
RELATIONS OF EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

27. LOCALITY. —Gives the idea of relative position. 

28. NUMBER— Gives the talent for calculation. 

29. ORDER. — Communicates the love of physical arrangement. 
SO. EVENTUALITY.— Takes cognizance of occurrences or event*. 
81. TIME. — Gives rise to the perception of duration. 

32. TUNE. — The sense of Melody and Harmony arises from it. 

53. LANGUAGE. — Gives facility in acquiring a knowledge of arbitrary 
signs to express thoughts, readiness in the use of them, and the 
power of inventing and recollecting them. 

Genus IV. REFLECTING FACULTIES, WHICH COMPARE, 
JUDGE, AND DISCRIMINATE. 

54. COMPARISON.— Gives the power of discovering analogies, re- 
semblances, and differences. 

35. CAUSALITY. — Traces the dependences of phenomena, and the 
relation of cause and effect. 

Observation proves that each of these faculties is con- 
nected with a particular portion of the brain, and that 
the power of manifesting each bears a relation to the 
size and activity of its organ. The organs differ in re- 
lative size in different individuals, and hence their differ- 
ences of talents and dispositions. This fact is of the 
greatest importance in the philosophy of man ; and the 
circumstance of its having been unknown until Dr. Gall's 
discovery of the functions of the brain, is sufficient te 
explain the past barrenness of mental science, and to 
render probable the assertion, that a great flood of light 
on this subject is now pouring forth on the world. These 
faculties are not ail equal in excellence and authority 
some are common to man with the lower animals, and 
others are peculiar to man. Before comparing the hu- 
man mind, therefore with its external condition, it be- 
comes an object of primary importance to discover the 



60 SUPREMACY OP THB 

relative rank and authority of these different powers. If 
the Animal Faculties are naturally or necessarily su- 
preme — in other words, if man is by nature only an ani- 
mal of superior intelligence, then external creation, if it 
be wisely constituted, may be expected to bear direct 
reference, in its arrangements, to this supremacy; and 
to be calculated to render him most happy when acting 
in conformity with his animal feelings. If the Moral 
and Intellectual Faculties hold the ascendancy, then the 
constitution of external nature may be expected to be in 
harmony with them— in other words, to confer the highest 
degree of enjoyment on man, when he acts under the 
guidance of his moral and intellectual powers. I am 
not here teaching Phrenology, or developing its princi- 
ples and evidences, but merely explaining it so far as 
indispensable for the purposes of this work. I refer to 
the Treatise on Phrenology for details. 

SECT. IV.*— THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH EACH 
OTHER; OR THE SUPREMACY OF THE MORAL SENTIMENTS 
AND INTELLECT. 

According to the Phrenological theory of human nature, 
the faculties are divided into Propensities common to 
man with the lower animals, Sentiments common to 
man with the lower animals, Sentiments proper to man, 
and Intellect. Every faculty stands in a definite relation 
to certain external objects ; when it is internally active, 
it desires these objects ; when they are presented to it, 
they excite it to activity, and delight it with agreeable 
sensations. Human happiness and misery are resolva- 
ble into the gratification, and denial of gratification, c 
one or more of our mental faculties, or of the feelings 
connected with our bodily frame. The faculties, in 
themselves, are mere instincts ; the moral sentiments 
and intellect being higher instincts than the animal pro- 
pensities. Every faculty is good in itself, but all ar© 
liable to abuse. Their operations are right only whea 
they act in harmony with each other, enlightened intel 
iect and moral sentiment holding the supremacy. 



MORAL 8ENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 6l 

The faculties may be considered as acting in a variety 
of ways. First, The lower propensities may be viewed 
as acting by themselves, each seeking its own gratifica- 
tion, but without transgressing the limits prescribed by 
enlightened intellect and the moral sentiments : this 
gratification is legitimate and proper, and the fountain 
of much enjoyment to human beings. Secondly, The 
propensities may be considered as acting in opposition 
to the dictates of the moral sentiments and intellect : a 
merchant, for instance, by misrepresentation of the real 
qualities of his commodities, may obtain a higher price 
for them than if he spoke the truth ; or, by depreciations 
unjustly the goods of a rival, he may attract that rival's 
customers to himself: By such conduct he would appa- 
rently benefit himself, but he would infringe the dictates 
of the moral sentiments and intellect; in other words, 
he would do an injury to the interests of his rival pro- 
portionate to the undue benefit which he attempted to 
secure to himself: All. such manifestations of the pro- 
pensities are abuses, and, when pursued systematically 
to their results, are seen to injure not only the indi- 
vidual against whom they are directed, but him also who 
practises them. Thirdly, The moral sentiments may be 
regarded as acting by themselves, each seeking its own 
gratification ; thus Benevolence may prompt an indi- 
vidual to do acts of kindness, and Veneration to perform 
exercises of devotion. When the gratification sought by 
any one or more of the sentiments does not infringe the 
duties prescribed by ail the other sentiments and en- 
lightened intellect, the actions are proper. But any one 
moral sentiment, acting by itself, may run into excess — 
Benevolence, for instance, may instigate to generosity at 
the expense of justice; Veneration may prompt a per- 
son to run after sermons abroad, when he should be dis- 
charging his domestic duties, or instructing his children 
at home — which actions also are abuses. 

Thus there is, 1st, a wide sphere of action provided 
for the propensities, in which each may seek its gratifi- 
cation in its own way, without exceeding the limits of 
morality; and this is a good and proper action: 2dly, 
6 



62 SUPREMACY OP THB 

There is ample scope for the exercise of each of the 
moral and intellectual faculties, without infringing the 
dictates of any of the other faculties belonging to the 
same classes; and this action also is good. But on the 
other hand, the propensities, and also the moral and in- 
tellectual faculties, may act singly or in groups, in op- 
position to the dictates of the whole mental sentiments 
and intellectual powers enlightened by knowledge and 
acting in combination; and all such actions are wrong. 
Hence right conduct is that which is approved of by tlie 
whole moral and intellectual faculties, fully enlightened, and 
acting in harmonious combination. This I call the supre- 
macy of the moral sentiments and intellect. 

In maintaining this supremacy, therefore, I do not con- 
sider any of the moral sentiments and intellectual facul- 
ties singly, or even the whole of them collectively, as 
sufficient to direct conduct by their mere instinctive sug- 
gestions. To fit them to discharge this important duty, 
they must act in harmonious combination, and be illumi- 
nated by knowledge of science and of moral and religious 
duty. The sources of knowledge are observation and re 
flection — experience — and instruction by books, teachers, 
and all other means by which the Creator has provided 
for the improvement of the human mind. Whenever their 
dictates, thus combined and enlightened, oppose the so- 
licitations of the propensities, the latter must yield — 
otherwise, by the constitution of nature, evil will inevita- 
bly ensue. This is what I mean by nature being consti- 
tuted in harmony with the supremacy of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect. 

Phrenology shows that different individuals possess the 
faculties in very different degrees : I do not mean, there- 
fore, to say, that in each individual, whatever the pro 
portion of his organs may be, the dictates of his moral 
and ''ntellectual powers are rules of conduct not to be dis- 
puted. On the contrary, in most individuals one or seve- 
ral of the moral or intellectual organs are so deficient in 
size, in proportion to the organs of the propensities, that 
their individual perceptions of duty will be far short of 
the highest standard. The dictates of the moral and 



X 



MORAL 8ENTIMENT8 AND INTELLECT. 6J 

Intellectual powers, therefore, which constitute rules of 
conduct, are the collective dicta of the highest mind9 
illuminated by the greatest knowledge. 

Let us now consider the faculties themselves. First, 
I shall view the propensities as acting alone, uninfluen- 
ced by the moral and intellectual powers. There is 
ample scope for their proper activity in this way; but 
the great distinction between the animal faculties and the 
powers proper to man is, that the former do not prompt 
us to seek the welfare of mankind at large ; their object 
is chiefly the preservation of the individual himself, his 
family or his tribe; while the latter have the general 
happiness of the human race, and our duties to God, as 
their ends. 

The Love of Life, and The Appetite for Food, have 
clearly reference to the preservation of the individual 
alone. 

Even the domestic affections, amiable and respectable 
as they undoubtedly are when combined with the moral 
feelings, have self as their chief object. The first three 
propensities, Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, and Ad- 
hesiveness, or the group of the domestic affections, desire 
a conjugal partner, offspring, and friends ; the obtaining 
of these affords them delight — the removal of them occa- 
sions pain. But they do not take an interest in the wel- 
fare of their objects on their own account. He who loves 
from Amativeness alone is sensual, faithless, and negli- 
gent of the happiness of its object. He who combines 
with love springing from this propensity, Benevolence, 
Veneration, Justice, -and Intellect, will disinterestedly 
promote the real happiness of the object of his affec- 
tion. 

The whole faculties, as I have already repeatedly ob- 
served, must be gratified harmoniously, or at least the 
gratification of one or more of them must not offend any 
of the others. For example, suppose the group of the 
domestic affections to be highly interested in an individual 
and strongly to desire to form an alliance with him, but 
that the person so loved is improvident and immoral, 
and altogether an object of whom the higher faculties, if 



^m SUPREMACY OF THB 

left dispassionately to survey his qualities, could not ap- 
prove ; then, if an alliance be formed with him, under 
the ungovernable impulses of the lower feelings, bitter 
days of repentance will necessarily follow, when these 
begin to languish, and his qualities give the latter facul- 
ties offence. If, on the other hand, the domestic affec- 
tions are guided to an object pleasing to the better 
powers, these themselves will be gratified : they will 
double the delights afforded by the inferior faculties, an; 1 . 
render the enjoyment permanent. 

The love of children, springing from Philoprogenitive- 
ness, is the same in kind as that of the miser for his gold; 
an interest in the object, for the sake of the gratification 
it affords to his own mind, without desiring, or being 
able to distinguish, what is good for the object on its 
own account. This truth is recognised by Sir Walter 
Scott. He says, "Elspat's ardent, though selfish affec 
tion for her son, incapable of being qualified by a regard 
for the true interests of the unfortunate object of her 
attachment, resembled the instinctive fondness of the 
animal race for their offspring; and, diving little farther 
into futurity than one of the inferior creatures, she only 
felt that to be separated from Hamish was to die.'** 

In man, this faculty generally acts along with Bene- 
volence, and a disinterested desire of the happiness of 
the child mingles with, and elevates, the mere instinct 
of Philoprogenitiveness ; but the sources of these two 
affections are different, their degrees vary in different 
persons, and their ends also are dissimilar. This is ex- 
emplified every day by the conduct of mothers, who, al- 
though actuated by an intense instinctive love of their 
offspring, nevertheless spoil them by vicious indulgence, 
and render them completely miserable. If Philopro- 
genitiveness were capable, by itself, of desiring and 
perceiving the real welfare of children, the treatment of 
them would, in all cases be rational and beneficial, in 
proportion to the degree in which this faculty was active , 
but this is not consistent with experience. Again, Chris 

•CI ronicles of the Cannongate, toI. i. p. 281. 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 65 

tian mothers, who sincerely believe that, at death, their 
children pass into everlasting happiness, which is far 
better for them than sojourning on earth, nevertheless 
show the highest indications of bereavement and sorrow 
on their loss ; — thus affording evidence that their love 
was an instinct which gives pain when disappointed, ana 
not a disinterested affection concerned exclusively for 
the happiness of the being itself which constituted its 
object. 

The same observation applies to the affection proceed- 
ing from Adhesiveness. When this faculty acts alone, it 
desires, for its own satisfaction, a friend to love; but 
from its own impulses, it is not interested in the welfare 
of its object. It feels attached to him as a sheep does 
to its fellows of the flock ; but if Benevolence do not act 
along with it, it does nothing for the happiness of that 
friend. Both Adhesiveness and Philoprogenitiveness 
tend to excite Benevolence towards their objects ; when 
this sentiment, however, is naturally very weak, the pro- 
pensities cannot render it vividly active. The horse feels 
melancholy when his companion is removed ; but the 
feeling appears to be simply one of uneasiness at the 
absence of an object which gratified his Adhesiveness. 
His companion may have been led to a richer pasture, or 
introduced to more agreeable society ; yet this does not 
assuage the distress suffered by him at his removal ; his 
tranquillity, in short, is restored only by time causing the 
activity of Adhesiveness to subside, or by the substitu- 
tion of another object on which it may exert itself. In 
human nature, the effect of the faculty, when acting 
singly, is the same ; and this accounts for the fact of 
the almost total indifference of many persons who were 
really attached by Adhesiveness to each other, when one 
falls into misfortune, and becomes a disagreeable object 
to the pride or vanity of the other. Suppose two per 
sons, elevated in rank and possessed of affluence, to have 
each Adhesiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approba- 
tion, large, with Benevolence and Conscientiousness 
moderate, it is obvious that, while both are in prosperity, 
tney may really like each other's society, and feel a re 
5 6' 



66 SUPREMACY OF THE 

ciprocal attachment, because there will be mutual sym- 
pathy in their Adhesiveness, and the Self-Esteem and 
Love of Approbation of each will be gratified by the 
rank and circumstances of the other; but imagine one 
of them to fall into misfortune, and to cease to be an 
object gratifying to Self-Esteem and Love of Approba- 
tion ; suppose that he becomes a poor friend instead of 
a rich and influential one ; the harmony between their 
selfish faculties will be broken, and then Adhesiveness 
in the one who remains rich will transfer its affection to 
another individual who may gratify it, and also supply 
agreeable sensations to Self-Esteem and Love of Appro- 
bation — to a genteel friend, in short, who will look well 
in the eye of the world. 

Much of this conduct occurs in society, and the whin- 
fling complaint is very ancient, that the storms of adver- 
sity disperse friends, just as the wintry blast strips from 
the forest the leaves that gaily adorned it in the sun- 
shine of summer; and many moral sentences have been 
pointed, and epigrams finely turned, on the selfishness 
and corruption of poor human nature. But such friend- 
ships were attachments founded on the lower feelings, 
which, by their constitution, do not regard the welfare 
of others ; and the desertion complained of is the fair 
and legitimate result of the principles on which both par- 
ties acted during the gay hours of prosperity. If we 
look at a cast of the head of Sheridan, we shall perceive 
large Adhesiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Appro- 
bation, with deficient Causality, and moderate Conscien- 
tiousness. He had large Individuality, Comparison, 
Secretiveness, and Imitation, which gave him talents for 
observation and display. When these earned him a 
brilliant reputation, he was surrounded by friends, and 
he himself probably felt attachment in return. But he 
was deficient in morality, and this prevented him from 
loving his friends with a true, disinterested, and honest 
regard; he abused their kindness ; and as he sank into 
poverty and wretchedness*, and ceased to be an honor to 
them or to excite their Love of Approbation, all who 
were constituted like himself deserted him. But the 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 67 

whole connexion was founded on selfish principles; She 
ridan honoured them, and they flattered Sheridan; and 
the abandonment was the natural consequence of the 
cessation of gratification to their selfish feelings. I shall, 
bye and bye, point out the sources of a loftier and purer 
fiiendship, and its effects. It was only those individuals 
who acted from Adhesiveness combined with the higher 
feelings, that remained attached to him through all his 
misfortunes. 

Combativeness and Destructiveness also, when acting 
in combination with the other propensities, do not in 
their own nature seek the happiness of others. If ag- 
gression is committed against us, Combativeness shows 
the front of opposition and repels the attack; Destruc- 
tiveness inflicts pain or injury, to make the aggressor 
desist, or as vengeance for the offence. Both feelings 
are obviously very different from Benevolence. I do not 
say, that, in themselves, they are despicable or sinful; 
on the contrary, they are necessary, and, when legiti- 
mately employed, highly useful ; but still their first and 
instinctive object is the preservation of self. 

Secretiveness suppresses feelings that are improper 
to be manifested, and that might injure us with other in- 
dividuals, and restrains the faculties generally. It also 
desires to find out secrets that may enable its possessor 
to guard self against hostile plots or designs. In itself 
R does not desire, in any respect, the benefit of others. 

The next organ is Acquisitiveness. It blindly desires 
to possess, is pleased with accumulating, and suffers great 
uneasiness in being deprived of possessions ; but its ob- 
ject is not the happiness of others. Like all the other 
faculties, it is highly useful, for even Benevolence can- 
not give away until Acquisitiveness has acquired. There 
are friendships, particularly among mercantile men, 
Tounded on Adhesiveness and Acquisitiveness, just as in 
fashionable life they are founded on Adhesiveness and 
Love of Approbation. Two individuals fall into a course 
of dealing, by which each reaps profit from transactions 
with the other: this leads to intimacy: Adhesiveness 
mingles its influence, and a feeling of attachment is al 



68 SUPREMACY OP THE 

last produced. The moment, however, that the Acquisi 
tiveness of the one suffers the least inroad from that of 
the other, and their interests clash, they are apt, if no 
higher principle unite them, to become bitter enemies. 'Il 
is probable that, while these fashionable and commercial 
friendships last, the parties may profess great reciprocal 
esteem and regard, and that, when a rupture takes place, 
the one who is depressed or disobliged may recall these 
expressions, and charge the other with hypocrisy; bul 
they really were not insincere. From Adhesiveness and 
gratified Love of Approbation or Acquisitiveness, eacb 
probably felt something which he coloured over and per 
haps believed to be disinterested friendship ; but if each 
would honestly probe his own conscience, he would be 
obliged to acknowledge that the whole basis of the con- 
nexion was selfish — and hence, that the result is just what 
ought to be expected by every man who places his reli 
ance for happiness chiefly on the lower feelings. 

Self-Esteem is, in its very essence and name, selfish ; 
H is the love of ourselves, and the esteem of ourselves 
par excellence. 

Love op Approbation, although many think otherwise, 
does not in itself desire the happiness of others. Its ob- 
ject is applause to ourselves, to be esteemed ourselves; 
and if it prompt us to do services, or to say agreeable 
things to others, this is not from pure love of them, but 
for the sake of obtaining the self-gratification afforded by 
their good opinion. 

Suppose, for example, that we are acquainted with a 
person who has committed an error in some official duty 
— who has done or said something that the public disap- 
prove of, and which we see to be really wrong — Bewevo- 
ence and Conscientiousness would prompt us to lay be- 
fore our friend the very head and front of his offending, 
and conjure him to forsake his error, and make public 
amends : — Love of Approbation, on the other hand, would 
simply desire to gain his applause, by making ourselves 
agreeable to him, without looking farther. If unenlight- 
ened, it would either render us averse to speak to him at 
all on the subject, lest he should be offended ; or prompt 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 69 

us to extenuate his fault, to gloss it over, and to repre- 
sent it either as a simple mistake or as extremely trivial. 
[f we an/falyse the motive which prompts to this course, 
we shall find that it is not love of our friend or considera- 
tion for his welfare — but fear lest, by our presenting to 
him disagreeable truths, he should feel offended with us, 
and deprive us of the gratification afforded by his good 
opinion. 

Another illustration may be given :« — A manufacturer 
in a country town, having acquired a considerable fortune 
by trade, applied part of it in building a princely mansion 
which he furnished in the richest and most expensive style 
of fashion. He asked his customers, near and distant, 
to visit him, and introduced them into an apartment that 
dazzled them with splendour. This excited their curi- 
osity and wonder, which was precisely the effect he desi- 
red ; he then led them over his whole suite of rooms, and 
displayed before them his grandeur and taste. In doing 
so, he affected to act as if he was conferring a high plea 
sure on them, and believed that he was filling their minds 
with an intense admiration of his greatness ; but the real 
effect was very different. The motive of his conduct was 
not love of them, or regard for their happiness or welfare: 
it was not Benevolence to others that, prompted him to 
build the palace; it was not Veneration; it was not 
Conscientiousness. The fabric sprang from Self-Esteem 
and Love of Approbation, combined, no doubt, with con- 
siderable Intellect and Ideality. In leading his humble 
brethren in trade through the princely halls, over the 
costly carpets and amidst the gilded mirrors and rich 
array that every where met their eyes, he exulted in the 
consciousness of his own importance, and asked for their 
admiration, not as an expression of respect for any real 
benefit conferred upon them, but as the much relished 
food of his own selfish vanity. 

Let us attend, in the next place, to the effect which 
this display would produce on those to whom it was ad- 
dressed. To gain their esteem or affection, it would have 
been necessary to manifest towards them Benevolence, 
respect, and justice : for to. cause another individual to 



70 8UPREMACY OF THE 

love us, we must make him the object of our moral sen 
timents, which have his good and happiness for their end 
Here, however, these were not the inspiring motives, and 
the want of them would be instinctively felt. The cus 
tomers who possessed the least shrewdness would as 
cribe the whole exhibition to the vanity of the owner, 
and they would either pity, or envy and hate him : if 
their own moral sentiments predominated, they would 
pity him ; if their Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation 
were paramount, they would envy his magnificence, yet 
be offended at his assumed superiority, and would hat# 
him. It would be only the silliest and the vainest who 
would be at all gratified ; and their satisfaction would 
arise from the feeling, that they could now return to their 
own circle, and boast how great a friend they had, and 
in how grand a style they had been entertained — this 
display being a direct gratification of their own Self-Es- 
teem and Love of Approbation, by identifying themselves 
with him. Even this pleasure would exist only where 
the admirer was so humble in rank as to entertain no 
idea of rivalship, and so limited in intellect and morality 
as not to perceive the worthlessness of the qualities by 
which he was captivated. 

In like manner, when persons, even of more sense than 
the manufacturer here alluded to, give entertainments 
to their friends, they sometimes fail in their object from 
the same cause. Their leading motive is a wish to show 
off themselves, much more than to confer real happiness 
upon their acquaintances ; and, by the unbending law of 
human nature, this must fail in exciting good will and 
pleasure in the minds of those to whom it is addressed, 
because it disagreeably affects their Self-Esteem and 
Love of Approbation. In short, to be really successful 
in gratifying our friends, we must keep our own selfish 
faculties in due subordination, and pour out copious 
streams of real kindness from the higher sentiments, 
animated and elevated by intellect ; and all who have 
experienced the heartfelt joy and satisfaction attending 
an entertainment conducted on this principle, will never 



MORAL SENTIMENTB AND INTELLECT. 71 

quarrel with the homeliness of the fare, or feel uneasj 
About the absence of fashion in the service. 

Cautiousness is the next faculty, and is a sentiment in- 
stituted to prompt us to shun danger. Acting apart from 
the moral sentiments, it x^ould seek first to protect self 
from evil ; and this is its essential object. 

This terminates the list of the Feelings common to 
man with the lower animals,* and which, as we have 
seen when acting instinctively, either singly or in combi 
nation with each other, apart from the moral powers, do 
not seek the welfare of others as their aim, but have 
self-preservation and self-gratification as their leading 
objects. They are given for the protection and advan- 
tage of our individual nature, and, when manifested in 
their proper spheres, are highly useful, and also respec- 
table, viewed with reference to that end; but they are 
sources of innumerable evils when allowed to usurp the 
ascendency over the moral faculties, and to become the 
leading springs of our social conduct. 

I proceed to notice the Moral Sentiments, which are 
proper to man, and to point out their objects and rela- 
tions. 

Benevolence has direct reference to other beings. It 
desires purely and disinterestedly the happiness of its 
objects ; it loves for the sake of the person beloved ; if 
he be well, and the sunbeams of prosperity shine warmly 
around him, it exults and delights in his felicity. It de- 
sires a diffusion of joy, and renders the feet swift and 
the arm strong in the cause of charity and love. By the 
beneficence of the Creator, it is, when gratified, the 
source of great enjoyment to its possessor; insomuch 
that some authors have asserted that men are benevolent 
for the sake of this pleasure. But this is not correct. 

♦Benevolence is stated in the works on Phrenology as common H 
man with the lower animals ; but in these creatures it appears to pro- 
duce rather passive meekness and good nature, than actual desire for 
each other's happiness. In the human race, this last is its propel 
function ; and, viewed in this light, I treat of it as exclusively a hu- 
man faeulty. 



/ 



72 SUPREMACY OF THE 

The impulse is instinctive, and acts before the intellect 
bas anticipated the result. 

Veneration also has reference to others. It looks up 
with a pure and elevated emotion to the being to whom 
it is directed, whether God or our fellow men, and de 
lights in the contemplation of their venerable and admi 
rable qualities. It renders self lowly, humble and sub 
missive. God is its highest object. 

Hope spreads its gay wing in the boundless regions of 
futurity. It desires good, and expects it to come ; "it 
incites us indeed to aim at a good which we can live 
without ;" but its influence is soft, soothing, and happy. 
When combined with the propensities, it expects good to 
self ; when with the moral sentiments, it anticipates uni- 
versal happiness. 

Ideality delights in perfection from the pure pleasure 
of contemplating it. So far as it is conoerned, the pic- 
ture, the statue, the landscape, or the mansion, on which 
it abides with the intensest rapture, is as pleasing, al- 
though the property of another, as if all its own. It is 
a spring that is touched by the beautiful wherever it ex- 
ists ; and hence its means of enjoyment are as unbound- 
ed as the universe. 

Wonder seeks the new and the striking, and is delight- 
ed with change ; but there is no desire of appropriation to 
self in its longings. 

Conscientiousness stands in the midway between self 
and other individuals. It implies the existence of both 
selfish and social tendencies in man, for one of its func- 
tions is to regulate their contending solicitations. It is 
a regulator of our animal feelings, and points out the 
limit which they must not pass. It desires to do to ano- 
her as we would have another to do to us, and is the 
uardian of the welfare of our fellow-men, while it sanc- 
tions and supports our personal feelings within the 
bounds of due moderation. It is a noble feeling; and 
the mere consciousness of its being bestowed upon us, 
ought to bring home to our minds an intense conviction 
that the Author of the universe is at once wise and just. 

The sentiments now enumerated may be erroneously 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 73 

directed, or may act in excess, and, in either case, may 
give rise to abuses, such as profusion, superstition, 01 
extravagant refinement. But the grand distinction be- 
tween them and the propensities is this : The propensi- 
ties, acting even legitimately—singly, or in combination 
with each other, but not in combination with the moral 
sentiments— have individual interests for their direct ob- 
jects, and do not actively desire the happiness of other 
beings for the sake of these beings themselves ; the ac- 
tions of the lower animals afford illustrations in point. 
The moral powers, on the other hand, acting in harmoni- 
ous combination with each other, and directed by enlight- 
ened intellect, desire the welfare of other beings as their 
direct object ; the purest and the best of men afford in 
their conduct examples of the truth of this remark.* 

Intellect is universal in its applications. It may be- 
come the handmaid of any of the faculties : it may de- 
vise a plan to murder or to bless, to steal or to bestow, 
to rear up or to destroy; but as its proper use is to ob- 
serve the different objects of creation, to mark their re- 
lations, and to direct the propensities and sentiments to 
their proper and legitimate enjoyments, it has a bound- 
less sphere of activity, and, when properly exercised and 
applied, is a source of high and inexhaustible delight. 

The world is so constituted, that all necessary and 
really advantageous gratifications of the propensities, 
are compatible with the dictates of the moral sentiments 
and intellectual powers when acting in harmonious com- 
bination; and that all gratifications of the propensities 
which are disapproved of by the higher powers, are in 
their ultimate consequences, hurtful to the individual 
himself. In like manner, all manifestations of the higher 
sentiments, when acting in harmonious combination and 
directed by enlightened intellect, although they tend 

* The classification of the moral sentiments In the phrenological 
system is not perfect : It includes Wit, Imitation, Firmness, and 
Wonder, which are not necessarily or essentially moral. By " the 
moral sentiments," when used as a general expression, I mean Be- 
nevolence. Veneration, and Conscientiousness, aided by Hope and 
Uealitj. 

7 



74 SUPREMACY OF THB 

directly to the welfare of others, indirectly contribute, in 
a high degree, to the enjoyment of the virtuous agent. 

Keeping in view the great difference now pointed out 
between the animal and properly human faculties, tne 
reader will perceive that three consequences follow from 
the constitution of these powers. 

First, All the faculties, when in excess, are insatiable, 
and, from the constitution of the world, never can be satis- 
fied. They indeed may be soon satisfied on any particu- 
lar occasion. Food will soon fill the stomach ; success 
in a speculation will render Acquisitiveness quiescent for 
the moment ; a triumph will satisfy for the time Self-Es- 
teem and Love of Approbation; a long concert will 
fatigue Tune; and a* tedious discourse will afflict Causa- 
lity. But after repose they will all renew their solicita- 
tions. They must all therefore be regulated, particu-' 
larly the propensities and lower sentiments. These 
having self as their primary object, and being blind to 
consequences, do not set limits to their own indulgence; 
and, when allowed to exceed the boundaries prescribed 
by the superior sentiments and intellect, lead directly to 
misery to the individual, and injury to society. 

As this circumstance attending the propensities is of 
great practical importance, I shall make a few observa- 
tions in elucidation of it. The births and lives of child- 
ren depend upon circumstances over which unenlightened 
men have but a limited control ; and hence an individual, 
whose supreme happiness springs from the gratification 
of Philoprogenitiveness, may, by the predominance of 
that propensity and the inactivity of the higher powers, 
be led to neglect or infringe the natural laws on which 
the lives and welfare of children depend, to treat them 
irrationally, and thus to defeat his own desires. He 
will be in constant danger of anguish and disappoint- 
ment, from the death of his children, or from their undu- 
tifui conduct. Besides, Philoprogenitiveness, acting in 
each parent along with Self-Esteem and Love of Appro- 
bation, would desire that his children should possess tne 
fcatfciiwst rank and greatest wealth, and be distinguished 
»«** ua*i most splendid taients. Now, the highest the 



MORAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 75 

greatest, and the most splendid of any qualities, neces- 
sarily imply the existence of inferior degrees, and are 
attainable only by few. The animal faculties, therefore, 
must be restrained in their desires, and directed to their 
objects by the moral sentiments, and by intellect, other- 
wise they will inevitably lead to disappointment. In 
like manner, Acquisitiveness desires wealth; but as na- 
ture affords annually only a limited quantity of grain, 
cattle, fruit, flax, and other articles, from which food, 
clothing, and wealth, are manufactured ; and as this 
quantity, divided equally among all the members of a 
state, would afford but a moderate portion to each ; it is 
self-evident, that, if all desire to acquire and possess a 
large amount, ninety-nine out of every hundred must be 
disappointed. This disappointment, from the very con- 
stitution of nature, is inevitable to the greater number; 
and when individuals form schemes of aggrandizement, 
originating from desires communicated by the animal 
faculties alone, they would do well to keep this law of 
nature in view. When we look around us, we see how 
few become rich ; how few succeed in accomplishing all 
their lofty anticipations for the advancement of their 
children; and how few attain the summit of ambition, 
compared with the multitudes who fail. The animal 
faculties exist in all men ; and when they act without 
regulation, they prompt one man to defeat the gratifica- 
tion of another. All this arises, not from error and im- 
perfection in the institutions of the Creator, but from 
blindness in men to their own nature, to the nature of 
external objects, and to the relations established between 
them; in short, from blindness to the principles of the 
divine administration of the world. 

Secondly, The animal propensities being inferior in 
their nature to the human faculties, their gratifications, 
when not approved of by the latter, leave a painful 
feeling of discontent and dissatisfaction in the mind, 
occasioned by the secret disavowal of their excessive 
action by the higher feelings. Suppose, for example, a 
young person to set out in life with ardent wishes to ac 
quire wealth, and to attain honour and distinction. 



76 8UPREMACY OF THE 

Ima ;ine him to rise early and sit up late ; to put forth 
all the energies of a powerful mind in buying, selling, 
and becoming rich; and to be successful: it is obvious, 
that Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, 
had a small share in prompting him to this course of 
action; and that, in pursuing it, they have not received 
direct and intended gratification. They may have anx- 
iously and constantly watched the animal faculties, 
longing for the hour when they would say Enough ; their 
whole occupation in the mean time, having been to 
restrain them from such gross excesses as would have 
defeated their own ends. 

Suppose, then, this individual to have reached the 
evening of life, and to look back on the pleasures and 
pains of his past existence : he must feel that there has 
been vanity and vexation of spirit— or the want of a 
satisfying portion ; because the highest of his faculties 
have not been the motives of his conduct, and have 
received no direct and adequate gratification. If an in- 
dividual has, through life, aimed at acquiring reputation, 
he will find that the real affection and esteem of mankind 
which he has gained, will be great or small in propor- 
tion to the degree in which he has manifested, in his 
habitual conduct, the higher or the lower faculties. If 
men have seen him selfish in his pursuit of wealth, self- 
ish in his domestic affections, selfish in his ambition — 
although he may have pursued his objects without posi- 
tive encroachment on the rights of others, they will still look 
coldly on him — they will feel no glow of affection towards 
him, no elevated respect, and no sincere admiration. If 
he possess penetration, he will see and feel that this is 
the case; but the fault is his own: love, esteem, and 
sincere respect, arise, by the Creator's laws, from con- 
templating, not plodding selfish faculties, but Benevo- 
lence, Veneration, and Justice, as the motives and ends 
of our conduct ; and the individual supposed has reaped 
the natural and legitimate produce of the soil which he 
cultivated, and the seed which he sowed. 

Thirdly, The higher feelings, when acting in harmoni- 
ous combination, and directed by enlightened intellect/ 



MORAL 8ENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 77 

have a boundless scope for gratification: their least in- 
dulgence is delightful, and their highest activity is bliss ; 
they cause no repentance, leave no void, but render life 
a scene at once of peaceful tranquility and sustained 
felicity: and, what is of much importance, conduct pro- 
ceeding from their dictates carries in its train the highest 
gratification to the animal propensities themselves, of 
which the latter are susceptible. At the same time, it 
must be remembered, that the sentiments err, and lead 
also to evil, when not regulated by enlightened intellect; 
that intellect in its turn must give due weight to the ex- 
istence and desires of both the propensities and the 
sentiments, as elements in the human constitution, be- 
fore it can arrive at sound conclusions regarding con- 
duct ; and that rational actions and true happiness flow 
from the gratification of all the faculties in harmony with 
each other — the moral sentiments and intellect bearing 
the directing sway. 

This proposition maybe shortly illustrated: — Imagine 
an individual to commence life, with the thorough con- 
viction that the higher sentiments are the superior pow- 
ers, and that they ought to be the sources of his action — 
the first effect would be to cause him to look habitually out- 
ward on other men and on his Creator, instead of looking 
inward on himself as the object of his highest and chief 
regard. Benevolence would infuse into his mind the 
feeling that there are other human beings as dear to the 
Creator and as much entitled to enjoyment as himself; 
and that his duty is to seek no gratification to himself 
which is calculated to prove injurious to them, but, on 
the contrary, to act so as~to confer on them, by his daily 
exertions, all the services in his power: Veneration 
would give a strong feeling of reliance on the power and 
wisdom of God, that such conduct would conduce to the 
highest gratification of all his faculties ; it would add 
also an habitual respect for his fellow men, as beings 
deserving his regard, and to whose reasonable wishes 
he was bound to yield a willing and sincere obedience : 
Lastly, Conscientiousness would prompt him habitually to 
restrain his animal desires, so as to prevent the slighes* 
7* 



78 8TJPREMACY OF THE 

abuse of them which would prove injurious to his fellow 
men. 

Let us trace, then, the effect which these principles 
would produce in ordinary life. Suppose a friendship 
formed by such an individual: one of his fundamental 
principles being Benevolence, which inspires with a pure 
and disinterested regard for other men, he would desire 
his friend's welfare for his friend's sake. Next, Venera- 
tion, acting along with intellect, would reinforce this 
love, by the conviction that it was entirely conformable 
to the law of God, and would be acceptable in his sight. 
It would also add a habitual deference towards the friend 
himself, which would render the manner pleasing to him, 
and the deportment yielding and accommodating in all 
things proper to be forborne or done. Thirdly, Consci- 
entiousness, ever on the watch, would proclaim the duty 
of making no unjust demands on the good nature of a 
friend, but of limiting the whole intercourse with him to 
an interchange of kindness, good offices, and reciprocal 
affection. Intellect, acting along with these principles, 
would point out, as an indispensable requisite to such 
an attachment, that the friend himself should be so far 
under the influence of the moral sentiments as to be able, 
in some degree, to satisfy them ; for if he were immoral, 
selfish, vainly ambitious, or, in short, under the habitual 
influence of the propensities, the sentiments could not 
love and respect him: they might pity him as unfortu- 
nate, but love him they could not, because this is impos- 
sible by the very laws of their constitution. 

Let us now attend to the degree in which such a 
friendship would gratify the lGwer propensities. In the 
first place, how would Adhesiveness exult and rejoice in 
such an attachment ! It would be filled with delight, 
because, if the intellect were convinced that the friend 
habitually acknowledged the supremacy of the higher 
sentiments, Adhesiveness might pour forth its ardor, and 
each cling to its object with the closest bonds of affection. 
The friend would not encroach on us for evil, because 
his Benevolence and Justice would oppose this ; he 
would not lay aside restraint, and break through the 



MOKAL SENTIMENTS AND INTELLECT. 79 

bonds of affection by undue familiarity, because Venera- 
tion would forbid this; he would not injure us in our 
name, person, or reputation, because Conscientiousness, 
Veneration, and Benevolence, all combined, would pre- 
vent such conduct. Here, then, Adhesiveness, freed 
from the fear of evil, of deceit, and of dishonor ( because 
such a friend could not possibly fall into dishonor), would 
be at liberty to take its deepest draught of affectionate 
attachment ; it would receive a gratification which it is 
impossible it could attain while acting in combination 
with the purely selfish faculties. What delight, too, 
would such a friendship afford to Self-Esteem and Love 
of Approbation ! There would be a legitimate approval 
of ourselves, arising from a survey of pure motives and 
just and benevolent actions. Love of Approbation, also, 
would be gratified in the highest degree ; for every act 
of affection, every expression of esteem, from such a 
friend, would be so purified by Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Conscientiousness, that it would form the legitimate 
food on which Love of Approbation might feast and be 
satisfied: it would fear no hollowness beneath, no tat- 
tling in absence, no secret smoothing over for the sake 
of mere effect, no envyings, no jealousies. In a word, 
friendship founded on the higher sentiments as the ruling 
motives, would delight the mind with gladness and sun- 
shine, and gratify all the faculties, animal, moral, and 
intellectual, in harmony with each other. 

By this illustration, the reader will understand more 
clearly what I mean by the harmony of the faculties. 
The fashionable and commercial friendships of which I 
spoke gratified the propensities of Adhesiveness, Love 
of Approbation, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness, but left 
out, as fundamental principles, all the higher senti- 
ments :~-there was, therefore, in these instances, a want 
of harmonious gratification to the whole faculties, which 
want gave rise to a feeling of uncertainty, and of the 
absence of full satisfaction ; it permitted only a mixed 
and imperfect enjoyment while the friendship lasted, and 
led to a feeling of painful disappointment or of vanity 
and vexation, when a rupture occurred. The error, in 



80 THE FACULTIES OF MAN 

such cases, consists in founding attachment on the lowei 
faculties, seeing that they, by themselves, are not calcu- 
lated to form a stable basis of affection; instead of 
building it on them and the higher sentiments, which, 
acting together, afford a foundation for real, lasting, and 
satisfactory friendship. In complaining of the hollow- 
ness of attachments springing from the lower faculties 
exclusively, we are like men who should try to build a 
pyramid on its smaller end, and then speak of the un- 
kindness of Providence, and lament the hardness of their 
fate, when it fell. A similar analysis of all other plea- 
sures founded on the animal propensities chiefly, would 
exhibit similar results. Happiness, therefore, must be 
viewed by men as connected with the exercise of the 
three great classes of faculties; the moral sentiments 
and intellect exercising the directing and controlling 
sway, before it can be permanently attained. 

Many men, on arriving at the close of life, complain 
of all its pursuits and enjoyments having proved vanity 
and vexation of spirit; but, to my mind, this is just an 
intimation that the plan of their lives has been selfish, 
that they have missed the right method of doing good, 
and that they have sought for pleasure, not in the legiti- 
mate use, but in foolish abuses of their faculties. I can- 
not conceive that the hour of death should cause the 
mind to feel all acts of kindness done to others — all 
exercises of devotion performed in a right spirit — all 
deeds of justice executed' — all rays of knowledge dis- 
seminated — during life, as vain, unprofitable, and uncon- 
soling, even at the moment of our leaving for ever this 
sublunary scene. On the contrary, such actions appear 
to me to be those which the mind would then rejoice to 
pass in review, as having afforded real enjoyment, and 
left behind us the greatest permanent benefits to our fel- 
low men. 

SECT. V. THE FACULTIES OF MAN COMPARED WITH EXTKR- 

t NAL OBJECTS. 

Having considered man as a physical being, and brieflj 
adverted to the adaptation of his constitution to the phy 



FACULTIES OF MAN 81 

ftical laws of creation ; having viewed him as an organized 
being, and traced the relations of his organic structure to his 
external circumstances; having taken a rapid survey of his 
faculties as an animal, moral, and intellectual being — with 
their uses and the forms of their abuses ; and hawing con- 
trasted these faculties with each other, and discovered the 
supremacy of the Moral Sentiments and Intellect ; I proceed 
to compare his faculties with external objects, in order to dis- 
eover what provision has been made for their gratification. 

Amativeness is a feeding obviously necessary for the 
continuance of the species ; and one which, properly regu- 
lated, is not offensive to reason:- — opposite sexes exist to 
provide for its gratification.* 

Philoprogexitiveness is given — and offspring exist. 

Concentrativeness is conferred — and the other faculties 
are its objects. 

Adhesiveness is given — and country and friends exist. 

Comb ati veness is bestows? — and physical and moral ob- 
stacles exist, to meet and subdue which, courage is necessary. 

Destructiveness is given— and man is constituted with 
a carnivorous stomach, and uiimals to be killed and eaten 
exist. Besides, the whole con ibinat ions of creation are in a 
state of decay and renovaUm. h\ the animal kingdom 
almost every species is the prev of some other; and the 
faculty of Destructiveness places the human mind in har- 
mony with this order of creation. Destruction makes way 
for renovation ; the act of renovation furnishes occasion for 
the activity of our other powers ; and activity is pleasure. 
That destruction is a natural institution, is unquestionable. 
Not only has nature taught the spider to construct a web for 
the purpose of ensnaring flies that it may devour them, and 
constituted beasts of prey with carnivorous teeth, but she has 
formed even plants, such as the Drosera, to catch and kill 
flies, and use them for food. Destructiveness is also the 
source of resentment and indignation — a most important de- 
fensive as well as vindicatory purpose. It is a check upon 
undue encroachment, and tends to constrain mankind to pay 
regard to the rights and feelings of each other. When pro- 
perly regulated, it is an able assistant to justice. 

Constructivexess is given — and materials for con- 

* The nature and sphere of activity of the phrenological faculties 
is explained at length in the " System of Phrenology," to which 1 
Leg leave to refer. Here 1 can oni) indicate general ideas. 

6 



S2 COMTARED WITH EXTERNAL OFJECTS. 

stiucting artificial habitations, raiment, ships, and various 
other fabrics that add to the enjoyment of life, are the objects 
which give it scope. 

Acquisitiveness is bestowed — and property exists, capa- 
ble of beiag collected, preserved, and applied to use. 

Secretiveness is given — and the manifestations of our 
faculties require to be restrained, until fit occasions and legiti- 
mate objects present themselves for their gratification ; which 
restraint is rendered not only possible but agreeable, by the 
propensity in question. While we suppress our emotions, 
ideas, designs, or opinions, and confine them within the limits 
of our own consciousness, we exercise and gratify this faculty 
in the very act of doing so. 

Self-Esteem is given — -and we have an individual exist- 
ence and individual interests, as its objects. 

Love of Approbation is bestowed — and we are sur- 
rounded by our fellow men, whose good opinion is the object 
of its desire. 

Cautiousness is admirably adapted to the nature of the 
external world. The human body is combustible, is liable to 
be destroyed by violence, to suffer injury from extreme wet 
and winds, &c. ; and it is necessary for us to be habitually 
watchful to avoid these sources of calamity. Accordingly, 
Cautiousness is bestowed on us as an ever-watchful sentinel, 
constantly whispering " Take care." There is ample scope 
for the legitimate and pleasurable exercise of all our faculties, 
without running into these evils, provided we know enough, 
and are watchful enough ; and therefore Cautiousness is not 
overwhelmed with inevitable terrors. It serves merely as a 
warder to excite us to beware of sudden and unexpected 
danger ; it keeps the other faculties at their post, by furnish- 
ing a stimulus to them to observe and to trace consequences, 
that safety may be insured ; and when these other faculties 
do their duty in proper form, the impulses of Cautiousness, 
instead of being painful, are the reverse : they communicate 
a feeling of safety, which is exceedingly agreeable. Hence 
this faculty appears equally benevolent in its design, as the 
others which we have contemplated. It is clear that the gift 
of an organ of Cautiousness implied that man was to be 
placed in a field of danger. It is adapted to a world like 
the present, but would be at variance with a scene into which 
no evil could intrude. 

Here, then, we perceive a beautiful provisior? made for sup- 



FACULTIES OF MAX 83 

porting the activity of the lower propensities, and affording 
them legitimate gratification. Those powers are conferred on 
us clearly to support our animal nature, and to place us in 
harmony with the external ohjects of creation. Far from 
being injurious or base in themselves, they possess the dig- 
nity of utility, and are sources of high enjoyment, when legiti- 
mately indulged. The phrenologist, therefore, would never 
seek to extirpate them, or to weaken them too much. He 
desires only to see their excesses controlled, and their exer- 
cises directed in accordance with the great institutions and 
designs oi the Creator. Theologians who enforce the cor- 
ruption of human nature, would do well to consider whether 
man as originally constituted possessed the organs of these 
propensities or not. If he did possess them, it will be incum- 
bent on them to show the objects of them in a world where 
there was no sorrrow, sin, death, or danger. If these organs 
were bestowed only after the fall, the question will remain to 
be solved, whether man with new organs added to his brain, 
and new propensities to his mind, continued the same being, 
as when these did not form parts of his constitution. Or, 
Anally, they may consider whether the existence of these 
organs, and of an external world adapted to them, does not 
prove that man, as he now exists, is actually the same being 
as when he was created, and that his corruption consists in 
his tendency to abuse his faculties, and not in any inherent 
viciousness attributable to his nature itself. 

The next class of faculties is that embracing the Moral 
Sentiments proper to man. These are the following: — 

Benevolence is given — and sentient and intelligent be 
ings are created, w r hose happiness we are able to increase, 
thereby affording it scope and delight. It is an error to 
imS^ine that creatures in misery are the only objects of be- 
nevolence, and that it has no function but to experience pity. 
It is a wide-spreading fountain of generous feeling, desiring 
for its gratification not only the removal of pain, but the 
maintenance and augmentation of positive enjoyment; and 
the happier it can render its objects, the more complete are 
its satisfaction and delight. Its exercise, like that of all the 
other faculties, is a source of great pleasure to the individual 
himself; and nothing can be conceived more admirably 
adapted for affording it exercise, than the system of creation 
exhibited on earth. From the nature of the human faculties, 
tach individual, without injuring himself has it in his power 



84 COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

to confer prodigious benefits, or, in other words, to pour forth 
the most copious streams of benevolence on others, by legiti- 
mately gratifying their various feelings and intellectual fa- 
culties. 

VENERATio^.-~The highest object of this faculty is the 
Divine Being ; and I assume here the existence of God as 
capable of demonstration. The very essay in which I am 
now engaged, is an attempt at an exposition of some of his 
attributes, as manifested in this world. If we find wisdom* 
and benevolence in his works, unchangeableness and no 
shadow of turning in his laws, perfect harmony in each de- 
partment of creation; and if we shall discover that the evils 
which afflict us are much less the direct objects of his arrange- 
ments than the consequences of ignorant neglect of institu- 
tions intended for our enjoyment — then we shall acknowledge 
in the Divine Being an object whom we may love with all 
our soul, and reverence with the deepest emotions of venera- 
tion, and on whom Hope and Conscientiousness may repose 
with a perfect and unhesitating reliance. The exercise of 
this sentiment is in itself a great positive enjoyment, when 
the object is in harmony with our other faculties. Further, 
its activity disposes us to yield obedience to the Creator's 
laws, the object of which is our own happiness; and hence 
its exercise, in the highest degree is provided for. Revelation 
unfolds the character and intentions of God where reason 
cannot penetrate. 

Hope is given — and our understanding, by discovering the 
laws of nature, is enabled to penetrate into the future. This 
sentiment, then, is gratified by the absolute reliance which 
Causality convinces us we may place on the stability and 
wisdom of the divine arrangements : its legitimate exercise, 
in reference to this life, is to give us a vivifying faith that 
good is attainable if we use the proper means, and that while 
we suffer evil we are undergoing a chastisement for having 
neglected the institutions of the Creator, the object of which 
punishment is to urge us back into the right path. It is a 
very powerful alleviator of our afflictions. Revelation pre- 
sents to Hope the certainty of a life to come, and directs all 
our faculties in points of Faith. 

Ideality is bestowed — and not only is external nature 
invested with the most exquisite loveliness, but a capacity fo? 
moral and intellectual refinement is given to us, by which wo 
ma y rise in the scale of excellence, and, at every step of om 



FACULTIES f F MAN 85 

progress, reap direct enjoyment from this sentiment. Its con- 
stant desire is for " something more exquisite still." In its 
own immediate impulses it is delightful, and external nature 
and our own faculties respond to its call. 

Wonder prompts us to admiration, and desires something 
new. When we contemplate man endowed with intellect to 
discover a Deity and to comprehend his works, we cannot 
doubt that Wonder is provided with objects for its intensest 
•xercise; and when we view him placed in a world where 
old things are constantly passing away, and a system of reno- 
vation is incessantly proceeding, we see at once how vast a 
provision is made for the gratification of his desire of novelty, 
and how admirably it is calculated to impel his other faculties 
to action. 

Conscientiousness exists — and it has a wide field of 
exercise in regulating the rights and interests of the indivi- 
dual in relation to other men and to society. The existence 
of selfish propensities and disinterested emotions, demands a 
power to arbitrate between them, and to regulate both, and 
such is the sentiment of Conscientiousness. To afford it full 
satisfaction, it is necessary to prove that all the divine institu- 
tions are founded in justice. This is a point which many 
regard as involved in much obscurity; I shall endeavor in 
this essay to lift the veil in part, for to me justice appears to 
flow through every divine institution. 

One difficulty, in regard to Conscientiousness, long ap- 
peared inexplicable ; it was, bow to reconcile with benevo- 
lence the institution by which this faculty visits us with 
remorse, after offences are actually committed, instead of 
arresting our hands by an irresistible veto before sinning, so 
as to save us from the perpetration altogether. The problem 
is solved by the principle, That happiness consists in the 
activity of our faculties, and that the arrangement of punish- 
ment after the offence, is far more conducive to activity than 
the opposite. For example : if we desired to enjoy the high- 
est gratification in exploring a new country, replete with the 
most exquisite beauties of scenery and the most captivating 
natural productions ; and if we found in our path precipices 
that gratified Ideality in the highest degree, but which en- 
dangered life when, neglecting the law of gravitation, we 
advanced so near as to fall over them; whether would it be 
more bountiful in Providence to send an invisible attendant 
with us, who, whenever we were about to approach the brink, 
8 



86 COMPARED WITH EXTERNAL OBJECTS. 

should interpose a barrier, and fairly cut short our advance, 
without requiring us to bestow one thought on the subject, 
and without our knowing when to expect it and when not; — 
or to leave all open, but to confer on us, as he has done, eyes 
fitted to see the precipice, faculties to comprehend the law of 
gravitation, and Cautiousness to make us fear the infringe- 
ment of it — and then to leave us to enjoy the scene in per- 
fect safety if we used these powers, but to fall over and suffer 
pain or death if we neglected to exercise them] It is obvi» 
ous that the latter arrangement would give far more scope to 
our various powers ; and if active faculties are the sources of 
pleasure, as will be shown in the next chapter, then it would 
contribute more to our enjoyment than the other. Now, 
Conscientiousness punishing after the fact, is analogous, in the 
moral world, to this arrangement in the physical. If Intel- 
lect, Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness, do 
their parts, they will give intimations of disapprobation before 
the commission of offences, just as Cautiousness will give 
intimations of danger at the sight of the cliff; but if these 
are disregarded, and we fall over the moral precipice, remorse 
will follow as a punishment, just as pain is the chastisement 
for tumbling over the physical brink. The object of both insti- 
tutions is to permit and encourage the most vigoious and unre- 
strained exercise of our faculties, in accordance with the 
physical, moral, and intellectual laws of nature, and to punish 
us only when we transgress these limits. 

Firmness is bestowed — and the other faculties of the 
mind are its objects. It supports and maintains their activity, 
and gives determination to our purposes. 

Imitation is bestowed — and every where man is sur- 
rounded by beings and objeots whose actions and appearances 
it may benefit him to copy. 

The next Class of Faculties is the Intellectual. 

The provisions in external nature for the gratification of 
the Senses of Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Taste, and Feeling, 
are so obvious, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them. 

Individuality and Eventuality, or the powers of ob- 
serving things that exist, and occurrences, are given- — and 
"all the truths which Natural Philosophy teaches, depend 
upon matter of fact, and that is learned by observation and 
experiment, and never could be discovered by reasoning at 
all." Here, then, is ample scope for the exercise of these 
powers. 



ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN* HAPPINESS. 87 

Form, Stze, Weight, Locality, Order, and Number, 
are bestowed — and the sciences of Geometry, Arithmetic, 
Algebra, Geography, Navigation, Botany, Mineralogy, Zoo- 
logy, Anatomy, and various others, are the fields of their 
exercise. The first three sciences are almost the entire pro- 
ducts of these faculties; the others result chiefly from them, 
when applied on external objects. 

Coloring, Time, and Tune, are given — and these, aided 
. by Constructiveness, Form, Size, Ideality, and other faculties, 
find scope in Painting, Sculpture, Poetry, Music, and the 
other fine arts. 

Language is given — and our faculties inspire us with 
lively emotions and ideas, which we desire to communicate 
by its means to other individuals. 

Comparison and Causality exist, and these faculties, 
aided by Individuality, Form, Size, Weight, and others already 
enumerated, find ample gratification in Natural Philosophy, 
and in Moral, Political, and Intellectual Science. The gene- 
ral objects and affairs of life, together with our own feelings, 
conduct, and relations, are also the objects of the knowing 
and reflecting faculties, and afford them vast opportunities for 



CHAPTER in. 

ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, AND THE CONDI- 
TIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT. 

Having now given a rapid sketch of the constitution of 
man, and its relation to external objects, we are prepared to 
inquire into the sources of his happiness, and the conditions 
requisite for maintaining it. 

The first and most obvious circumstance which attracts 
attention is, that all erffayment must necessarily arise from 
activity of the various systems of which the human constitu- 
tion is composed. The bones, muscles, nerves, and digestive 
and respiratory organs, furnish pleasing sensations, directly 
or indirectly, when exercised in conformity with their nature ; 
and the external senses and internal faculties, when excited, 
supply the whole remaining perceptions and emotions, which, 
when combined, constitute life and rational existence. If 
'Aese were habitually buried in sleep, or constitutionally 



BS ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAJT HAPPINESS, 

inactive, life, to all purposes of enjoyment, might as well be 
extinct: Existence would be reduced to mere vegetation, 
without consciousness. 

If, then, wisdom and benevolence have been employed in 
constituting man, we may expect the arrangements of crea- 
tion, in regard to him, to be calculated, as a lea/ling object, to 
excite his various powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. 
This, accordingly, appears to me to be the case ; and the fact 
may be illustrated by a few examples. A certain portion of 
nervous and muscular energy is infused by nature into the 
human body every twenty-four hours, which it is delightful 
to expend. To provide for its expenditure, the stomach has 
been constituted so as to require regular supplies of food, 
which can be obtained only by nervous and muscular exer- 
tion; the body has been created destitute of covering, yet 
standing in need of protection from the elements of heaven ; 
and nature has been so constituted, that raiment can be 
easily provided by moderate exercise of the mental and corpo- 
real powers. It is delightful to repair exhausted nervous and 
muscular energy by wholesome aliment; and the digestive 
organs have been so constituted as to afford us frequent 
opportunities of enjoying the pleasures of eating. In these 
arrangements, the design of supporting the various systems 
of the body in activity, for the enjoyment of the individual, 
is abundantly obvious. A late writer justly remarks, that 
" a person of feeble texture and indolent habits has the ba»e 
smooth, thin, and light; but nature, solicitous of our safety, 
and in a manner which we could not anticipate, combines 
with the powerful muscular frame a dense and perfect texture 
of bone, where every spine and tubercle is completely de- 
veloped." " As the structure of the parts is originally per- 
fected by the action of the vessels, the function or operation 
of the part is made the stimulus to those vessels. The cuticle 
on the hand wears away like a glove ; but the pressure stimu- 
lates the living surface to force successive layers of skin under 
that which is wearing, or, as anatomists call it, desquamating ; 
by which they mean, that the cuticle does not change at once, 
but comes off in squamse or scales." 

Directing our attention to the Mind, we discover that Indi- 
viduality, and the other Perceptive Faculties, desire, as their 
means of enjoyment, to become acquainted with external 
objects; while the Reflecting Faculties long to know the 
dependencies and relations of all objects and beings. "Thert 



AND CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT 89 

te something," says an eloquent writer, "positively agreeable 
to all men, to all at least whose nature is not most grovelling 
and base, in gaining knowledge for its own sake. Wher* 
you see any thing for the first time, you at once derive some 
gratification from the sight being new; your attention ia 
awakened, and you desire to know more about it. If it is a 
piece of workmanship, as an instrument, a machine of any 
md, you wish to know how it is made, how it works, an 
what use it is of. If it is an animal, you desire to kno^ 
where it comes from, how it lives, what are its dispositions, 
*nd, generally, its nature and habits. This desire is felt, too, 
without at all considering that the machine or the animal 
may ever be of the least use to yourself practically ; for, in 
ell probability, you may never see them again. But you feel 
a curiosity to learn all about them, because they are new and 
unknown to you. You accordingly make inquiries; you 
feel a gratification in getting answers to your questions, that 
is in receiving information, and in knowing more — in being 
better informed than you were before. If you ever happen 
again to see the same instrument or animal, you find it 
agreeable to recollect having seen it before, and to think that 
you know something about it. If you see another instru- 
ment or animal, in some respects like, but differing in other 
particulars, you find it pleasing to compare them together , 
and to note in what they agree and in what they differ. 
Now, all this kind of gratification is of a pure and disinter- 
ested nature, and has no reference to any of the common 
purposes of life ; yet it is a pleasure — an enjoyment. You 
ax nothing the richer for it ; you do not gratify your palate, 
or any other bodily appetite ; and yet it is so pleasing you 
would give something out of your pocket to obtain it, and 
would forego some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The plea- 
sure derived from science is exactly of the like nature, or, 
rather, it is the very same."* This is a correct and forcible 
exposition of the pleasures attending the active exercise of 
our intellectual faculties. In the introduction to this work, 
I have given several illustrations of the manner in which the 
external world is adapted to the mental faculties of man, and 
of the extent to which it is calculated to maintain them in 
activity, and I need not repeat them here. 

Supposing the human faculties to have received their pre* 

* Objects, Advantages, and Pleasures of Science, p. 1. 
8* 



90 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

sent constitution, two arrangements for their gratification may 
be fancied : 1st, Infusing into the intellectual powers, at birth, 
intuitive knowledge of every object which they are fitted ever 
.0 comprehend; and directing every propensity and senti- 
ment by an infallible instinct to its best mode and degree of 
gratification : Or, Zdly, Constituting the intellectual faculties 
only as capacities for gaining knowledge by exercise and ap- 
plication, and surrounding them with objects bearing such 
relations towards them, that, when these objects and relations 
are observed and attended to, high gratification shall be 
obtained, and, when they are unobserved and neglected, the 
result shall be uneasiness and pain ; giving at the same time 
to each propensity and sentiment a wide field of action, 
comprehending both use and abuse, and leaving the intellect 
to direct each to its proper objects, and to regulate its degrees 
of indulgence. And the question occurs, Which of these 
modes would be more conducive to enjoyment] The gene- 
ral opinion would be in favor of the first ; but the second 
appears to me to be preferable. If the first meal we had 
eaten had forever prevented the recurrence of hunger, it is 
obvious that all the pleasures of satisfying a healthy appe- 
tite would then have been at an end ; so that this apparent 
bounty would have greatly abridged our enjoyment. In like 
manner, if (our faculties being constituted as at present) un- 
erring desire had been impressed on the propensities and 
sentiments, and intuitive knowledge had been communicated 
to the understanding, so that, when an hour old, we should 
have been, morally, as wise and virtuous, and intellectually, 
as thoroughly instructed as we could ever become, all provi- 
sion for the sustained activity of our faculties would have 
been done away with. When wealth is acquried, the miser's 
pleasure in it is diminished. He grasps after more with in- 
creasing avidity. He is supposed irrational in doing so; but 
he obeys the instinct of his nature. What he possesses no 
longer satisfies Acquisitiveness. The miser's pleasure arises 
from the active state of this faculty, and only the pursuit and 
obtaining of new treasures can maintain that state. The 
same law is exemplified in the case of Love of Approbation, 
The enjoyment which it affords depends on its active state ; 
and hence the necessity iox^new incense, and for mounting 
higher in the scale of ambition, is constantly felt by its victims. 
Napoleon, in exile, said, " Let us live upon the past ;" but he 
found this impossible : his predominant desires originated in 



AWD CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT. 91 

Love of Approbation and Self-Esteem, and the past did not 
stimulate them, or maintain them in constant activity. In like 
manner, no musician, artist, poet, or philosopher, would reckon 
himself happy, however extensive his attainments, if informed-, 
u Now you must stop and live upon the past •" and the reason 
is still the same ; the pursuit of new acquirements, and the 
discovery of new fields of investigation, excite and maintain 
the faculties in activity ; and activity is enjoyment. 

If these views be correct, the consequences of imbuing the 
mind, as at present constituted, with intuitive knowledge, ancj 
instinctive direction as to conduct, would not have been 
unquestionably beneficial. The limits of our experience and 
acquirements would have been speedily reached ; our first 
step would have been our last; every object would have 
become old and familiar; Hope would have had no object of 
expectation, Cautiousness no object of fear, Wonder no grati- 
fication in novelty ; and monotony, insipidity, and mental 
satiety, would apparently have been the lot of man. 

According to the view now advanced, creation, in its pre- 
sent form, is more wisely and benevolently adapted to our 
constitution than if instinctive direction and intuitive instruc- 
tion had been given to the mind at birth. By the actual 
arrangement, numerous noble faculties are bestowed, and 
their objects are presented : these objects are endowed with 
qualities fitted to benefit and delight us, when properly used, 
and to injure and punish us when misunderstood or misap- 
plied ; but we are left to find out their qualities by the exer- 
cise of our own powers. Provision is thus made for ceaseless 
activity of the mental faculties, and this constitutes delight. 
Wheat is produced by the earth, and adapted to the nutrition 
of the body ; but it may be rendered more grateful to the 
taste, more salubrious to the stomach, and more stimulating 
to the nervous and muscular systems, by being stripped of its 
external skin, ground into flour, and baked. Now, when the 
Creator endowed wheat with its properties, and the human 
body with its qualities and functions, he pre-arranged all these 
relations. In withholding congenital and intuitive knowledge 
of them, but in bestowing faculties fitted to find them out ; in 
rendering the exercise of these faculties agreeable ; and in 
leaving man in this condition, to act for himself — he appears 
to me to have conferred on him the highest boon. The earth 
produces also hemlock and foxglove; and, by the organic 
law, those substances, if taken in certain moderate qualities, 



92 ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

remove diseases; if in excesses, they occasion death: but 
mart; observing faculties, when acting under the guidance 
of Cautiousness and Reflection, are fitted to make this dis- 
covery : and he is left to make it in this way, or suifer the 
consequences of neglect. 

Water, when elevated in temperature, becomes steam: 
steam expands with prodigious power; and this power, con- 
fined by metal and directed by intellect, is capable of being 
converted into the steam engine, the most efficient yet most 
humble servant of man. All this was clearly pre-arranged 
by the Deity, and man's faculties were adapted to it at crea- 
tion; but he was left to observe and discover the qualities and 
relations of water for himself. This duty, however, must be 
acknowledged to have been benevolently imposed, the mo- 
ment we perceive that the Creator bas made the very exer- 
cise of the faculties agreeable, and arranged the qualities and 
relations of matter so beneficially, that, when known, they 
carry a double reward to the discoverer — the pleasure of 
mental exercise, and positive advantage derived from the ob- 
jects themselves. 

The Knowing Faculties, as we have seen, observe merely 
the qualities of bodies, and their simpler relations. The Re- 
flecting Faculties observe relations also, but of a higher order. 
The former, for example, discover that the soil is clay or gravel; 
that it is tough or friable; that it is dry or wet; that excess 
of water impedes vegetation ; that in one season the crop is 
large, and in the next deficient. The reflecting faculties 
take cognizance of the causes of these phenomena; and 
acting along with the knowing powers, they discover the 
means by which wet soil may be rendered dry, clay pulver- 
ized, light soil invigorated, and all of them made more pro- 
ductive; and also the relationship of particular soils to par- 
ticular kinds of grain. Nations that exert their knowing 
faculties in observing the qualities of the soil, and their 
reflecting faculties in discovering its capabilities, and its rela- 
tions to water, lime, manures, and the various species of 
grain — and who put forth their muscular and nervous ener- 
gies in accordance with the dictates of these powers — receive 
a rich reward in a climate improved in salubrity, and an 
abundant supply of food, besides much positive enjoyment 
attending the exercise of the powers themselves. Those com- 
munities, on the other hand, who neglect to use their mental 
faculties, and muscular and nervous energies, are puuished by 



AND CONDITIONS HECUJTSITE FOR MAINTAINING IT. 93 

Ague, fever, rheumatism, and a variety of painful affections 
arising from damp air ; they are stinted in food, and in wet 
seasons are brought to the very drink of starvation by serious 
failures of their crops. This punishment is a benevolent 
admonition from the Creator, that they are neglecting a great 
duty, and omitting to enjoy a great pleasure ; and it will 
cea'se as soon as, by obeying the Divine laws, they have 
fairly redeemed the blessings lost by their negligence. 

The winds and waves appear, at first sight, to present 
insurmountable obstacles to man's leaving the island or conti- 
nent on which he happens to be born, and to his holding 
intercourse with distant climes : But, by observing the rela 
tions of water to timber, he is enabled to construct a ship; by 
observing the influence of the wind on a body placed in a 
fluid medium, he discovers the use of sails ; and, lately, he 
has found out the expansive quality of steam, and traced its 
relations until he has produced a machine that enables him 
almost to set the roaring tempest at defiance, and to sail 
straight to the stormy north, although its loudest and its 
fiercest blasts oppose. All these capabilities were conferred 
on nature and on man, long before they were practically ap- 
plied ; but now that we have advanced so far in our career 
of discovery and improvement, we perceive the scheme of 
creation to be admirably adapted to support the mental facul- 
ties in habitual activity, and to reward us for the exercise of 
them. 

In surveying external nature with this principle in view, 
we perceive in many qualities of physical objects clear indi- 
cations of benevolent design, which otherwise would be 
regarded as defects. The Creator obviously intended that 
man should discover and use coal-gas in illuminating dwelling- 
houses; and yet it emits an abominable odor. The bad 
smell, viewed abstractly from its consequences, would appear 
to be an unfortunate quality of gas ; but when we recollect 
that it is invisible, extremely subtle and liable to escape, and 
also, when mixed in a certain proportion with atmospheric 
air, to explode — and that the nauseous and penetrating smell 
is like a voice attached to it, proclaiming its escape, and 
warning us, in louder and louder tones, to attend to our 
«afety by confining it — it presents the aspects of wise and 
benevolent design. Gas stood in this relation to the olfac- 
tory nerves from the creation downwards, although it was 
long unknown to men. We cannot doubt that the discovery 



91 OS THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS., 

and application of it by them was contemplated by tl e Crea 
tor from the first. A few years ago, on hearing Paganini 
play on the violin, the subject of wonder with me was the 
exquisite fineness of his notes. The sounds fell on the ear 
as if their cause had been purely etherial. No indication of 
their material origin could be traced. An angel might be 
imagined to send forth such strains to mortal ears. The 
extraordinary development of Paganini's organs of Tune 
and Time, with the extreme sensibility of his nervous sys- 
tem strongly indicated in his countenance and figure, seem to 
have been the causes of his attaining this high degree of 
power. In reflecting on his performance, the idea forcibly 
struck me, that until a being constituted like Paganini ap- 
peared, we had no means of discovering what exquisite 
sounds the material substances composing a violin and bow 
were capable of emitting, and that a similar reflection may 
probably be applicable to the entire sublunary creation. This 
world may be mil of divine qualities and delicious harmonies, 
if we had only superior men to bring them into view ! And 
if the case be so, how truly admirable is that constitution of 
nature, which furnishes us with every possible inducement 
not only to study itself, but to improve our own qualities ; 
and which presents us with richer treasures, the farther we 
advance in the discharge of our most pleasing and profitable 
duties! 

It is objected to this argument, that it involves an incon- 
sistency. Ignorance of the natural laws, it is said, is repre- 
sented as necessary to happiness, in order that the faculties 
may obtain exercise in discovering and obeying them ; never- 
theless, happiness is held to be impossible till these laws shall 
have been discovered and obeyed: here then, it is said, igno- 
rance is represented as at once essential to, and incompatible 
with, enjoyment. But this is not an accurate representation 
ol the doctrine. I do not say that, in any individual man, 
ignorance of the natural laws is essential to enjoyment; I 
merely maintain, that with his present constitution it was 
more beneficial for him to be left to learn these laws from his 
parents or his own experience, than at birth to have received 
intuitive knowledge of all the objects of creation. A similar 
objection might be stated to the constitution of the bee. 
Honey is necessary to its enjoyment ; yet it has been left to 
gather honey for itself. The fallacy lies in losing sight of 
the natural constitution both of the bee and >i man. Th# 



AM) CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAINING IT. §ft 

bee has been furnished with instinctive tendencies to roam 
about the fields and flowery meadows, and to exert its ener- 
gies in labor; and it is obviously beneficial to it to be pio- 
vided with opportunities of doing so. And so it is with man. 
Gathering knowledge is to the human mind what gathering 
honey is to the bee. Communicating intuitive knowledge of 
the natural laws to man, while his present constitution con- 
tinues, would be the exact parallel of naturally gorging the 
bne with honey during the whole summer, when its energies 
are at their height. When the bee has completed its store, 
winter benumbs its powers, which resume their vigor only 
when its stock is exhausted, and when spring returns to afford 
them exercise. No torpor resembling that of winter seals 
up the faculties of the human race ; but their ceaseless 
activity is amply provided for by other arrangements: First \ 
Every individual of the race is born in utter ignorance, and 
starts from zero in the scale of knowledge, so that he has the 
laws to learn for himself either from his predecessors or from 
experience; Secondly, The laws of nature, compared with 
the mental capacity of any individual, are of boundless 
extent, so that every one may learn something new to the 
end of the longest life ; Thirdly, By the actual constitution 
of man, he must make use of his acquirements habitually, 
otherwise he will lose them. 

These circumstances remove the apparent inconsistency. 
If man had possessed intuitive knowledge of all nature, he 
could have had no scope for exercising his faculties in acqui- 
ring knowledge, in -preserving it, or in corn muni eating it. 
The infant would have been as wise as the most revered 
sage, and forgetfulness would have been necessarily excluded. 

Some who object to these views, imagine that after the 
human race has acquired knowledge of all the natural laws, 
if such a result be possible, they will be in the same condition 
as if they had been created with intuitive knowledge. But 
this does not follow. Although the race should acquire the 
knowledge supposed, it is not an inevitable consequence that 
each individual will necessarily enjoy it all ; which, however, 
would follow from intuition. The entire soil of Britain 
belongs to the 'landed proprietors as a class ; but each does 
not possess it all, and hence every one has opportunities of 
adding to his territories — with this disadvantage, however, in 
comparison with knowledge, that the acquisitions of one 
necessarily diminish the possessions vf another. Further, 



96 ' ON THE SOURCES OF HUMAN HAPPINESS, 

although the race should have learned all the natural laws, 
their children would not intuitively inherit their ideas, and 
thus the activity of every one, as he appeared on the stage, 
would be provided for; whereas, by intuition, every child 
would be as wise as his grandfather — and parental protection, 
filial piety, and all the delights that spring from difference in 
knowledge between youth and age, would be excluded. 
Lastly, By the actual state of man, the using of acquire- 
ments is essential to the preservation as well as the enjoy* 
ment of them. By intuition, all knowledge would be habitu- 
ally present to the mind without effort or consideration. On 
the whole, therefore, it appears that (man's nature being 
what it is) the arrangement by which he is endowed with 
powers to acquire knowledge, but left to find it for himself, ia 
both wise and benevolent. 

It has been asked, "But is theie no pleasure in science 
except that of discovery ] Is there none in using the know- 
ledge we have attained 1 Is there no pleasure in playing at 
chess after we know the moves V In answer, I observe, that 
if we knew beforehand all the moves that our antagonist 
intended to make and all our own, which must be the case if 
we knew every thing by intuition, we could have no pleasure. 
The pleasure really consists in discovering the intentions of 
our antagonist, and in calculating the effects of our own play ; 
a certain degree of ignorance of both of which is indispensable 
to gratification. In like manner, it is agreeable first to dis- 
cover the natural laws, and then to study the moves that we 
ought to make, in consequence of knowing them. So much, 
then, for the sources of human happiness. 

In the second place, To reap enjoyment in the greatest 
quantity and to maintain it most permanently, the faculties 
must be gratified harmoniously : In other words, if, among 
the various powers, the supremacy belongs to the moral senti- 
ments, then the aim of our habitual conduct must be tbe 
attainment of objects suited to gratify them. For example, 
in pursuing wealth or fame as the leading object of existence, 
full gratification is not afforded to Benevolence, Veneration, 
and Conscientiousness, and consequently complete satisfac- 
tion cannot be enjoyed ; whereas, by seeking knowledge, and 
dedicating life to the welfare of mankind, and obedience to 
God, in our several vocations, these faculties will be gratified, 
and wealth, fame, health, and other advantages, will flow in 



AND CONDITIONS REQUISITE FOR MAINTAJNINU IT. 97 

their train, so that the whole mind will rejoice, and its delight 
will remain permanent. 

Thirdly ', To place human happiness on a secure basis, the 
laws of external creation must themselves accord with the 
dictates of the moral sentiments, and intellect must be fitted 
to discover the nature and relations of both, and to direct the 
conduct in harmony with them. 

Much has been written concerning the extent of human 
ignorance : but we should discriminate between absolute .nca- 
pacity to know, and mere want of information, arising from 
not having used this capacity to its full extent In regard to 
the first — jour capacity to know — it appears probable that, in 
this world, we shall never know the essence, beginning, or 
end of things; because these are points which we have no 
faculties calculated to discover: But the same Creator who 
made the external world constituted our faculties; and if we 
have sufficient data for inferring it to be His intention that 
we shall enjoy existence here while preparing for the ulterior 
ends of our being — and if it be true that we can be happy 
here, only by becoming thoroughly conversant with those 
natural laws which are pre-arranged to contribute, when ob- 
served, to our enjoyment, and which, when violated, visit us 
with suffering— then we may safely conclude that our mental 
capacities are wisely adapted to the attainment of these 
objects, whene-^r we shall do our own duty in bringing them 
to their higher condition of perfection, and in applying them 
in the best manner. 

Sir Isaac Newton observed that all bodies which refracted 
the rays o^ light, were combustible, except one, the diamond, 
which h^ found to have this quality, but which he was not 
able, by any powers he possessed, to consume by burning. 
He did not conclude, however, from this, that the diamond 
was an exception to the uniformity of nature. He inferred 
that, as the same Creator had made the diamond and the 
refracting bodies which he was able to burn, and proceeded 
by uniform laws, the diamond also would, in all probability 
be found to be combustible, and that the reason of its resisting 
his power was ignorance on his part of the proper way to 
produce its conflagration. A century afterwards, chemist* 
made the diamond blaze with as much vivacity as Sir Isaac 
Newton had done a wax candle. Let us proceed, then, on 
an analogous principle. If the intention of our Creator be, 
that we should enjoy existence while in this world, then lie 
7 9 



9S APPLICATION OP TRtf BTiTCIlAL LAWS TO THE 

knew what was necessary to enable us to do so ; and He will 
not be found to have failed in conferring on us powers fitted 
to accomplish his design, provided we do our duty in develo- 
ping and applying them. The great motive to exertion is the 
conviction, that increased knowledge will furnish us with 
increased means of happiness and well-doing, and with new 
proofs of benevolence and wisdom in the Great Architect of 
the Universe. 

In pleading thus earnestly for the wise and benevolen 
constitution of the human mind, and the admirable adapta- 
tion of external nature to its qualities, I may be causing un- 
easiness to some readers who have been educated in the 
belief that human nature is inherently corrupt, and that phy- 
sical creation is essentially disordered ; but, in doing so, I 
yield to the imperative dictates of what appears to me to be 
truth. If the views now expounded shall be shown to be 
fallacious, I shall be most anxious to abandon them; but if 
they shall prove to be correct interpretations of nature, they 
will of necessity stand forth in all the might and majesty of 
divine appointments, and it will be criminal either to conceal 
or oppose them. If they be true, they will carry vast conse- 
quences in their train. I am not rearing a system from am- 
bitious motives, neither is it my object to attack the opinions 
of other men. It is simply to lift up the veil of ignorance, 
and, in all humility, to exhibit the Creator's works in their 
real colors, in as far as I imagine myself to have been per- 
mitted to perceive them. 



CHAPTER IV. 



APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE PRACTICAL 
ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 

If a system of living and occupation were to be framed for 
human beings, founded on the exposition of their nature 
which I nave now given, it would be something like this. 

'First, So many hours a day should be dedicated by every 
individual in health, to the exercise of his nervous and mus- 
cular systems, in labor calculated to give scope to their func- 
tions. The reward of obeying this requisite of his nature 
would be health, and a joyous jjiimal existence; the punish- 
ment of neglect is disease, low spirits, and premature death. 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 99 

Secondly, So many hours a day should be spent in the 
sedulous employment of the knowing and reflecting faculties ; 
in studying the qualities of external objects, and their rela- 
tions: also the nature of animated beings, and their relations; 
with the view not of accumulating mere abstract and barren 
knowledge, but of enjoying the positive pleasure of mental 
activity, and of turning every discovery to account, as .a 
means of increasing happiness or alleviating misery. The 
leading object should always be, to find out the relationship 
of every object to our own nature, organic, animal, moral, 
and intellectual, and to keep that relationship habitually in 
mind, so as to render our acquirements directly gratifying to 
our various faculties. The reward of this conduct would be 
an incalculable increase of pleasure, in the very act of acquir- 
ing a knowledge of the real properties of external objects, 
together with a great accession of power in reaping ulterior 
advantages and avoiding disagreeable affections. 

Thirdly, So many hours a day ought to be devoted to the 
cultivation and gratification of our moral and religious senti- 
ments ; that is to say, in exercising these in harmony with 
intellect, and especially in acquiring the habit of admiring, 
loving, and yielding obedience to the Creator and his institu- 
tions. This last object is of vast importance. Intellect is 
barren of practical fruit, however rich it may be in knowledge, 
until it is fired and prompted to act by moral sentiment. In 
my view, knowledge by itself is comparatively worthless and 
impotent, compared with what it becomes when vivified by 
lofty emotions. It is not enough that Intellect is informed ; 
the moral faculties must co-operate, in yielding obedience to 
the precepts which the intellect recognises to be true. As 
creation is one great system, of which God is the author and 
preserver, we may fairly presume that there must be harmony 
among all its parts, and between it and its Creator. The 
human mind is a portion of creation, and its constitution 
must be included in this harmonious scheme. The grand 
object of the moral and intellectual faculties of man, there- 
fore, ought to be, the study of God and of his works. Before 
philosophy can rise to its highest dignity, and shed on the 
human race its richest benefits, it must become religious; 
that is to say, its principles and their consequences must be 
viewed as proceeding directly from the Divine Being, and as a 
revelation of his will to the faculties of man, for the guidance 
of his conduct Philosophy while separated from the moral 



?00 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE 

feelings, is felt by the people at large to be cold and barren. 
It may be calculated to interest individuals possessing high 
intellectual endowments ; but as, in general, the moral and 
religious sentiments greatly predominate in energy over the 
intellectual powers, it fails to interest the mass of mankind. 
On the other hand, before natural religion can appear in all 
its might and glory, it must become philosophical. Its founda- 
tions must be laid in the system of creation; its authority 
must be deduced from the principles of that system ; and its 
applications must be enforced by a demonstration of the 
power of Providence operating in enforcing the execution of 
its dictates. While reason and religion are at variance, both 
are obstructed in producing their full beneficial effects. God 
has placed harmony between them, and it is only human im- 
perfection and ignorance that introduce discord. One way of 
cultivating the sentiments would be for men to meet and act 
together, on the fixed principles which I am now endeavoring 
to unfold, and to exercise, in mutual instruction, and in united 
adoration of the great and glorious Creator, the several facul- 
ties of Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Wonder, and 
Conscientiousness. The reward of acting in this manner 
would be a communication of direct and intense pleasure to 
each other; for I refer to every individual who has ever had 
the good fortune to pass a day or an hour with a really 
benevolent, pious, honest, and intellectual man, whose soul 
swelled with adoration of his Creator, whose intellect was 
replenished with knowledge of his works, and whose whole 
mind was instinct with sympathy for human happiness — 
whether such a day did not afford him the most pure, ele- 
vated, and lasting gratification he ever enjoyed. Such an 
exercise, besides, would invigorate the whole moral and intel- 
lectual powers, and fit them to discover and obey the Divine 
institutions. 

Phrenology is highly conducive to this enjoyment of our 
moral and intellectual nature. No faculty is bad, but, on the 
contrary, each has a legitimate sphere of action, and, when 
properly gratified, is a fountain of pleasure : in short, man 
possesses no feeling, of the right exercise of which an en- 
lightened and ingenuous mind need be ashamed. A party 
of thoroughly practical phrenologists, therefore, meet in the 
perfect knowledge of each other's qualities; they respect 
these as the gifts of the Creator; and their great object is to 
derive the utmost pleasure from their legitimate use, and to 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS Of LIFE. JA 

avoid every approximation to abuse of them. The distinc- 
tions of country and education are broken down by unity oi 
' principle ; the chilling restraints of Cautiousness, Self-Esteem, 
Secretiveness, and Love of Approbation, which stand as bar- 
riers of eternal ice between human beings in the ordinary 
intercourse of society, are greatly removed; the directing 
iway is committed to Benevolence, Veneration, Conscien- 
tiousness, and intellect ; and then the higher principles of the 
mind operate with a delightful vivacity unknown to persons 
unacqainted with the qualities of human nature. 

Intellect also ought to be regularly exercised in arts, science, 
philosophy, and observation. 

I have said nothing of dedicating hours to the direct gratifi- 
cation of the animal powers ; not that they should not be 
exercised, but that full scope for their activity is included in 
the employments already mentioned. In muscular exercises, 
Combativeness, Destructiveness, Constructiveness, Acquisi- 
tiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, may all be 
gratified. In contending with and surmounting physical and 
moral difficulties, Combativeness and Destructiveness obtain 
vent: in working at a mechanical employment, requiring the 
exertion of strength, these two faculties, and also Construc- 
tiveness and Acquisitiveness, will be exercised ; in emulation 
who shall accomplish the most good, Self-Esteem and Love 
of Approbation will obtain scope. In the exercise of the 
moral faculties, several of these, and others of the animal 
propensities, are employed; Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, and Adhesiveness, for example, acting under the gui- 
dance of Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, Ide- 
ality, and Intellect, receive direct enjoyment in the domestic 
circle. From proper direction also, and from the superior 
delicacy and refinement imparted to them by the higher pow- 
ers, they do not infringe the moral law, and leave no sting or 
repentance in the mind. 

Finally, a certain portion of time would require to be dedi- 
cated to the taking of food and sleep. 

All systems hitherto practised have been deficient in pro- 
viding for one or more of these branches of enjoyment. In 
the community of Orbiston, formed on Mr. Owen's principles, 
music, dancing, and theatrical entertainments, were provided ; 
but the people soon tired of these. They had not correspond- 
ing moral and intellectual instruction. The novelty excited 
them, but there was nothing substantial behind. In common 



102 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THF 

society, very little of either rational instruction or amu semen 
b provided. The neglect of innocent amusement is a great 
jrror 

If there be truth in these views, they will throw some light 
Wi two important questions that nave embarrassed philoso- 
phers, in regard to the progress of human improvement 
The first is, Why should man have existed so long, and 
made so small an advance in the road to happiness 1 It is 
obvious, that the very scheme of creation which I have de 
scribed, implies that man is a progressive being; and pro 
gression necessarily supposes lower and higher conditions of 
attainment and enjoyment. While men are ignorant, there 
is great individual suffering. This distresses sensitive minds, 
and seems inexplicable: they cannot conceive how improve- 
ment should so slowly advance. I confess myself incapable of 
affording any philosophical explanation why man should 
have been so constituted ; neither can I give a reason why 
the whole earth was not made temperate and productive, 
in place of being partially covered with regions of barren 
sand and eternal snow. The Creator alone can explain 
these difficulties. When the inhabitants of Britain wore 
the skins of animals, and lived in huts, we may presume 
that, in rigorous winters, many of them suffered severe 
privations, and that some would perish from cold. If there 
had been among the sufferers a gifted philosopher, who ob- 
served the talents that were inherent in the people^ although 
then laientj and who, in consequence, foresaw the splendid 
palaces and warm fabrics with which their descendants would 
one day adorn this island, he might well have been led to 
deplore the slow progress of improvement, and been grieved 
at the prevalence of so much intermediate misery. Yet, the 
explanation that man is a progressive being, is all that phi- 
losophy can offer; and if this satisfy us as to the past, it 
must be equally satisfactory in regard to the present and the 
future. The difficulty is eloquently adverted to by Dr. Chal- 
mers in his Bridgewater Treatise. " We might not know the 
reason," says he, " why in the moral world, so many ages of 
darkness and depravity should have been permitted to pass by 
any more than we know the reason why, in the natural world, 
the trees of a forest, instead of starting all at once into the 
full efflorescence and stateliness of their manhood, have to 
make their slow and laborious advancement to maturity, 
cradled in storms, and alternately drooping or expanding 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE,. 103 

with the vicissitudes of the seasons. But though unahle to 
scan all the cycles either of the moral or natural economy, 
yet we may recognize such influences at work, as, when 
multiplied and developed to the uttermost, are abundantly 
capable of regenerating the world. One of the likeliest of 
these influences is the power of education, to the perfecting 
of which so many minds are earnestly directed at this mo- 
ment, and for the general acceptance of which in society we 
have a guarantee in the strongest affections and fondest 
wishes of the fatheis and mothers of families." (Vol. i. p. 186.) 
Although, therefore, we cannot explain why man was con- 
stituted a progressive being, and why such a being advances 
uowly, the principles of this essay show that there is at least 
in admirable adaptation of his faculties to his condition. If 
f am right in the fundamental proposition, that harmonious 
activity of the faculties is synonymous with enjoyment of 
existence — it follows that it would have been less wise and 
less benevolent towards man, constituted as he is, to have 
communicated to him intuitively perfect knowledge, thereby 
leaving his mental powers with diminished motives to activity, 
than to bestow on him faculties endowed with high suscepti- 
bility of action, and to surround him with scenes, objects, 
circumstances, and relations, calculated to maintain them in 
ceaseless excitement ; although this latter arrangement neces- 
sarily subjects him to suffering while ignorant, and renders 
his first ascent in the scale of improvement difficult and slow. 
It is interesting to observe, that, according to this view, 
although the first pair of the human race had been created 
with powerful well-balanced faculties, but of the same nature 
as at present, if they were not also intuitively inspired with 
knowledge of the whole creation, and its relations, their first 
movements as individuals would have been retrograde ,• that 
is, as individuals, they would, through pure want of informa- 
tion, have infringed many natural laws, and suffered evil ; 
while, as parts of the race, they would have been decidedly 
advancing: for every pang they suffered would have led 
them to a new step in knowledge, and prompted them to ad- 
vance towards a much higher condition than that which they 
at first occupied. According to the hypothesis now presented. 
not only is man really benefitted by the arrangement which 
leaves him to discover the natural laws for himself, although, 
during the }«riod of his ignorance, he suffers much evil from 
want of acquaintance with them ; but the progress which he 



104 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAW S TO THE 

has already made towards knowledge and happiness must, 
from the very extent of his experience, be actually greater 
than can at present be conceived. Its extent will become 
more obvious, and his experience itself more valuable, aftei 
he has obtained a view of the real theory of his constitution. 
He will find that past miseries have at least exhausted count- 
less errors, and he will know how to avoid thousands of paths 
that lead to pain ; in short, he will then discover that errors 
in conduct, like errors in philosophy, give additional import- 
ance and practicability to truth, by the demonstration which 
they afford of the evils attending departures from its dictates. 
The grand sources of human suffering at present are bodily 
disease and mental anxiety, and, in the next chapter, these 
will be traced to infringement, through ignorance or other- 
wise, of physical, organic, moral, or intellectual laws, which, 
when expounded, appear in themselves calculated to promote 
the happiness of the race. It may be supposed that, according 
to this view, as knowledge accumulates, enjoyment will de- 
crease ; but, as formerly observed, ample provision is made 
against this event, by withholding intuition from each genera- 
tion as it appears on the stage. Each successive age must 
acquire knowledge for itself; and, provided ideas are new and 
suited to the faculties, the pleasure of acquiring them from 
instructors is second only to that of discovering them our- 
selves. It is probable, moreover, that many ages will elapse 
before all the facts and relations of nature shall have been 
explored, and the possibility of discovery exhausted. If the 
universe be infinite, knowledge can never be complete. 

The second question is, Has man really advanced in hap- 
piness, in proportion to his increase in knowledge ] We are 
apt to entertain erroneous notions of the pleasures enjoyed in 
past ages. Fabulists have represented them as peaceful, 
innocent, and gay ; but if we look narrowly into the condi- 
tions of the savage and barbarian of the present day, and 
recollect that these are the states of all individuals before the 
acquisition of scientific knowledge, we shall not much or long 
regret the pretended diminuation of enjoyment by civiliza- 
tion.* Phrenology renders the superiority of the latter con- 
dition certain, by showing it to be a law of nature, that, until 
the intellect is extensively informed, and the moral sentiment* 

* See on this subject a very elaborate and philosophical volume in 
the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, entitled The New Zealander^ 
p. 360. 



PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE. 105 

assiduously exercised, the animal propensities bear the pre- 
dominant sway ; and that wherever these are supreme, misery 
is an inevitable concomitant Indeed, the answer to the ob- 
jection that happiness has not increased with knowledge, 
appears to me to be found in the fact, that until Phrenology 
was discovered, the nature of man was not sufficiently known, 
and that, in consequence, very few of his institutions, civil or 
domestic, were correctly founded on the principle of the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments, or in accordance with 
the other laws of his constitution. Owing to the same cause, 
also, much of his knowledge has necessarily remained partial, 
and inapplicable to use ; but after this science shall have been 
appreciated and applied, clouds of darkness, accumulated 
through long ages that are past, may bt, expected to roll away, 
as if touched by the rays of the meridian sun — and with 
them, many of the miseries that attend total ignorance or im- 
perfect information to disappear.* 

It ought also to be kept constantly in remembrance, that 
man is a social bei?ig, and that the precept " love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself" is imprinted ill his constitution. That is to 
say, so much of the happiness of each individual depends on 
the habits, practices, and opinions of the society in which he 
lives, that he cannot reap the full benefits of his own advance- 
ment, until similar principles have been embraced and real- 
ized in practice by his fellow men. This renders it his interest, 
as it is his duty, to communicate his knowledge to them, and 
to carry them forward in the career of improvement. At this 
moment there are thousands of persons who feel their enjoy- 
ments, physical, moral, and intellectual, impaired and abridged 
by the mass of ignorance and prejudice which every where 
surrounds them. They are men living before their age, and 
whom the world neither understands nor appreciates. Let 
them not, however, repine, or despair; but let them dedicate 
their best efforts to communicating the truths which have 
opened up to themselves the prospect of happiness, and they 

* Readers who are strangers to Phrenology, and the evidence on 
which it rests, may regard the observations in the text as extravagant 
and enthusiastic; but I respectfully remind them, that, while they 
judge in comparative ignorance, it has been my endeavor to subject 
it to the severest scrutiny. Having found its proofs irrefragable, and 
being convinced of its importance, I solicit their indulgence in 
BpeaKinc of it as it appears to my own mind. As many persons con- 
tinue ignorant of the progress which Phrenology has "made, I have 
added in the Appendix, No. III., a note on this "subject. 



(06 APPLICATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS TO THE 

will not be disappointed. The law of our constitution which 
has established the supremacy of the moral sentiments, ren- 
ders it impossible for individuals to attain the full enjoyment 
of their rational nature, until they have rendered their fellow 
men virtuous and happy ; and in the truth and power of this 
principle, the ignorant and the wretched have a better gua- 
rantee for being raised in their condition by the efforts of 
their more fortunate brethren, than in the establishment of 
poor-laws or other legislative enactments. If all ranks of the 
people were taught the philosophy which I am now advocating, 
and if, in so far as it is true, it were enforced by their reli- 
gious instructors as the will of the Creator communicated to 
man through His natural institutions, the progress of general 
improvement would be greatly accelerated. 

If the notions now advocated shall ever prevail, it will be 
seen that the experience of the past ages affords no sufficient 
reason for limiting our estimate of man's capabilities of civili- 
zation. In the introductory chapter, I mentioned the slow 
and gradual preparation of the globe for man ; and that he 
appears to be destined to advance only by stages to the 
highest condition of his moral and intellectual nature. At 
present he is obviously only, in the beginning of his career. 
Although a knowledge of external nature, and of himself, is 
indispensable to his advancement to his true station as a 
rational being, yet four hundred years have not elapsed since 
the arts of printing and engraving were invented, without 
which, knowledge could not be disseminated through the 
mass of mankind ; and, up to the present hour, the art of 
reading is by no means general over the world — so that, even 
now, the means of calling man's rational nature into activity, 
although discovered, are but very imperfectly applied. It is 
only five or six centuries since the mariner's compass was 
known in Europe, without which even philosophers could 
not ascertain the most common facts regarding the size, forn^ 
and productions of the earth. It is but three hundred and 
forty three years since one-half of the habitable globe, Ame- 
rica, became known to the other half; and considerable por- 
tions of it are still unknown even to the best informed inqui- 
rers. It is little more than two hundred years since the 
circulation of the blood was discovered; previously to which 
it was impossible even for physicians to form any correct idea 
of the uses of many of man's corporeal organs, and of their 
relations to external nature. Haller, who flourished in the 



PRACTICAL AIIR ANO EMENTS OF LIFE. 107 

early part and middle of the last century, may be regarded as 
the founder of human physiology as a science of observation. 
It is only between forty and fifty years since the true func- 
tions of the brain and nervous system were discovered, 
before which we possessed no adequate means of becoming 
acquainted with our mental constitution and its adaptation to 
external circumstances and beings. It is no more than sixty- 
one years since the study of Chemistry, or of the constituent 
elements of the globe, was put into a philosophical condi 
tion by Dr. Priestly 's discovery of oxygen ; and hydrogen 
was discovered so lately as 1766, or sixty-nine years ago. 
Before that time, people in general were comparatively igno- 
rant of the qualities and relations of the most important ma- 
terial agents with which they weie surrounded. At present 
this knowledge is still in its infancy, as will appear from an 
enumeration of the dates of several other important disco- 
veries. Electricity was discovered in 1728, galvanism in 
1794, gas-light about 1798; and steam-boats, steam-looms, 
and the safety-lamp, in our own day. 

It is only of late years that the study of Geology has been 
seriously begun ; without which we could not know the past 
changes in the physical structure of the globe, a matter of 
much importance as an element in judging of our present 
position in the world's progress. This science also is still in 
its infancy. An inconceivable extent of territory remains to 
be explored, from the examination of which, the most inter- 
esting and instructive conclusions will probably present them- 
selves. In astronomy, too, the discoveries of the two Her- 
schels promise to throw additional light on the early history 
of the globe. 

The mechanical sciences are at this moment in full play, 
putting forth vigorous shoots, and giving the strongest indica* 
tions of youth, and none of decay. 

The sciences of morals and of government are still in 
many respects in a crude condition. 

In consequence, therefore, of his profound ignorance, man, 
in all ages, has been directed in his pursuits by the mere im- 
pulse of his strongest propensities, formerly to war and con- 
quest, and now to accumulating wealth; without having 
framed his habits and institutions in conformity with correct 
and enlightened views of his own nature, and its real interests 
and wants. Up to the present day, the mass of the people in 
every r.ation have rtmained essentially ignorant, the tools of 



108 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

interested leaders, or the creatures of their own blind impulses, 
unfavorably situated for the development of their rational na- 
ture; and they, constituting the great majority, necessarily 
influence the condition of the rest But at last, the arts and 
sciences seem to be tending towards abridging human labor, 
so as to force leisure on the mass of tin people ; while the 
elements of useful knowledge are so rapidly increasing, the 
capacity of the operatives for instruction is so generally recog- 
nised, and the means of communicating it are so powerful and 
abundant, that a new era may fairly be considered as having 
commenced. 

From the want of a practical philosophy of human nature, 
multitudes of amiable and talented individuals are at present 
anxious only for preservation of the attainments which society 
possesses, and dread retrogression in the future. If the views 
now expounded be correct, this race of moralists and politi- 
cians will in time become extinct, because progression being 
the law of our nature, the proper education of the people will 
render the desire for improvement universal. 



CHAPTER V. 

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERA- 
BLE TO INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAWS OF NATURE. 

Is the present chapter, I propose to inquire into some of the 
evils that have afflicted the human race ; and whether they 
have proceeded from neglect of laws, benevolent and wise in 
themselves, and calculated, when observed, to promote the 
happiness of man ; or from a constitution of nature so defec- 
tive that he cannot supply its imperfections, or so vicious that 
he can neither rectify nor improve its qualities. The follow- 
ing extract from the journal of John Locke, contains a forcible 
statement of the principle which I intend to illustrate : — 
" Though justice be also a perfection which we must neces- 
sarily ascribe to the Supreme Being, yet we cannot suppose 
the exercise of it should extend farther than his goodness has 
need of it for the preservation of his creatures in the order and 
beauty of the state that he has placed each of them in ; for 
since our actions cannot reach unto him, or bring him any 
profit or damage, the punishments he inflicts on any of his 
creatures, L e. the misery or destruction he brings upon them. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE PHTSICAL LAWS. 109 

can be nothing else but to preserve the greater or more con- 
siderable part ; and so being only for preservation, his justice 
is nothing but a branch of his goodness, which is fain by se- 
verity to restrain the irregular and destructive parts from doing 
barm." — Lord King's Life of Locke, p. 122. 

SKCT. I. CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF TBI 

PHTSICAL LAWS. 

The proper way of viewing the Creator's institutions, is to 
look, first to their uses, and to the advantages that flow from 
using them aright, and, secondly, to their abuses, and the evils 
that proceed from this source. 

In Chapter II., some of the benefits conferred on man by the 
law of gravitation are enumerated ; and I may here advert to 
some of the evils originating from that law, when human con- 
duct is in opposition to it. For example, men are liable to 
fall from horses, carriages, stairs, precipices, roofs, chimneys, 
ladders, and masts, and also to slip in the street — by which ac- 
cidents life is often suddenly cut short, or rendered miserable 
from lameness and pain ; and the question arises, Is human 
nature provided with any means of protection against these 
evils, at all equal to their frequency and extent 1 

The lower animals are equally subject to this law ; and the 
Creator has bestowed on them external senses, nerves, mus- 
cles, bones, an instinctive sense of equilibrium, the sense of 
danger, or cautiousness, and other faculties, to place them in 
accordance with it. These appear to afFord sufficient protec- 
tion to animals placed in all ordinary circumstances ; for we 
very rarely discover any of them, in their natural condition, 
killed or mutilated by accidents referable to gravitation. "Where 
their mode of life exposes them to extraordinary danger from 
this law, they are provided with additional securities. The ' 
monkey, which climbs trees, enjoys great muscular energy in 
its legs, claws, and tail, far surpassing, in proportion to its 
gravitating tendency, or its bulk and weight, what is bestowed 
on the legs and arms of man ; so that by means of them it 
springs from branch to branch, in almost complete security 
against the law in question. The goat, which browses on the 
brinks of precipices, has received a hoof and legs that give 
precision and stability to its steps. Birds, which are destined 
to sleep on branches of trees, are provided with a muscle 
passing over the joints of each leg and stretching down to the 
foot, and which, being pressed by their weight, produces a 
10 



i 



110 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

proportionate contraction of their claws, so as to make them 
cling the faster, the greater their liability to fall. The fly, 
which walks and sleeps on perpendicular walls, and the ceil- 
ings of rooms, has a hollow in its foot, from which it expels 
the air, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the outside of 
the foot holds it fast to the object on which the inside is placed. 
The walrus, or sea-horse, which is destined to climb up the 
sides of ice-hills, is provided with a similar apparatus. The 
camel, whose native region is the sandy desert of the torrid 
zone, has broad spreading hooves to support it on the loose 
soil. Fishes are furnished with air bladders, by dilating and 
contracting which they can accommodate themselves with per- 
fect precision to the law of gravitation. 

In these instances, the lower animals, under the sole guid- 
ance of their instincts, appear to be placed admirably in har- 
mony with gravitation, and guaranteed against its infringement. 
Is man, then, less an object of love with the Creator? Is he 
alone left exposed to the evils that spring inevitably from its 
neglect 1 His means of protection are different, but when 
understood and applied, they will probably be found not less 
complete. Man, as well as the lower animals, has received 
bones, muscles, nerves, an instinct of equilibrium,* and the 
faculty of Cautiousness; but not in equal perfection, in pro- 
portion to his figure, size, and weight, with those bestowed on 
them : — The difference, however, is far more than compensated 
by other faculties, particularly those of Constructiveness and 
Reflection, in which he greatly surpasses them. Keeping in 
view that the external world, in regard to man, is arranged 
on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
intellect, we shall probably find that the calamities suffered by 
him from the law of gravitation, are referable to predominance 
of the animal propensities, or to neglect of proper exercise of 
his intellectual powers. For example, when coaches break 
down, ships sink, or men fall from ladders, how generally may 
the cause be traced to decay in the vehicle, the vessel, or the \\ 
ladder, which a predominating Acquisitiveness alone prevented f I 
from being repaired ; or when men fall from houses and scaf- ' 
folds, or slip on the street, how frequently should we find their 
muscular, nervous, and mental energies impaired by. preceding 
debaucheries — in other words, by predominance of the animal 
faculties, which for the time diminished their natural means 

* **• Jhsa/ on Weight, Piiren. Joura. vol. ii. p. 419. 



IWmiKGEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS. Ill 

•ff accommodating themselves to the law from which they Buf- 
fer. The slater, in using a ladder, assists himself by the re- 
flective powers ; but, in walking along the ridge of a house, or 
standing on a chimney, he takes no aid from these faculties ; 
he trusts to the mere instinctive power of equilibrium, in which 
he is inferior to the lower animals — and, in so doing, clearly 
violates the law of his nature that requires him to use reflec- 
tion where instinct is deficient Causality and Constructive- 
ness could invent and provide means, by which, if he slipped 
from a roof or chimney, his fall might be arrested. A small 
chain, for instance, attached by one end to a girdle round his 
body, and having the other end fastened by a hook and eye to 
the roof, might leave him at liberty to move, and might break 
his fall in case he slipped. How frequently, too, do these ac- 
cidents happen after disturbance of the mental faculties and 
corporeal functions by intoxication ! 

The objection will probably occur, that in the gross condi- 
tion in which the mental powers exist, the great body of man- 
kind are incapable of exerting habitually that degree of moral 
and intellectual energy, which is indispensable to observance 
of the natural laws ; and that, therefore, they are, in point of 
feet, less fortunate than the lower animals. I admit that, at 
present, this representation is to a considerable extent just; 
but nowhere do I perceive the human mind instructed, and 
its powers exercised, in a degree at all approaching to theit 
limi ts. Let any person recollect how much greater capacity for 
enjoyment and security from danger he has experienced, at a 
particular time, when his whole mind was filled with, and 
excited by, some mighty interest, not only allied to but founded 
in, morality and intellect, than in that languid condition which 
accompanies the absence of elevated and ennobling emotions; 
and he may form some idea of what man will become capable 
of, when his powers shall have been cultivated to the extent 
of their capacity. At the present moment, no class of society 
is systematically instructed in the constitution of the mind an- 1 
body, in the relations of these to external objects, in the natur 
of these objects, in the natural supremacy of the moral senti 
ments, in the principle that activity of the faculties is the true 
source of pleasure, and that the higher the powers the more 
intense the delight ; and if such views be to the mind what 
light is to the eyes, air to the lungs, and food to the stomach, 
there is no wonder that a mass of inert mentality, if I may 
use sucb a word, should every where exist around us, and that 



112 CALAMITIES ARISING F II 031 

numberless evils should spring from its continuance in this 
condition. If active moral and intellectual faculties are the 
natural fountains of enjoyment, and the external world is 
created with reference to this state, it is as obvious that misery 
must result from animal supremacy and intellectual torpidity, 
as that flame, which is constituted to burn only when supplied 
with oxygen, must inevitably become extinct when exposed 
to carbonic acid gas. Finally, if the arrangement by whicli 
man is left to discover and obey the laws of his own nature 
and of the physical world, be more conducive to activity than 
intuitive knowledge, the calamities now contemplated appear 
to be instituted to force him to his duty ; and his duty, when 
understood, will constitute his delight. 

While, therefore, we lament the fate of individual victims 
to the law of gravitation, we cannot condemn that law itsel£ 
If it were suspended, to save men from the effects of negli- 
gence, not only would the proud creations of human skill 
totter to their base, and the human body rise from the earth 
and hang midway in the air, but our highest enjoyments would 
be terminated, and our faculties become positively useless* by 
being deprived of their field of exertion. Causality, for in- 
stance, teaches that the same cause will always, caeteris paribus, 
produce similar efFects ; and if the physical laws were suspended 
or varied, so as to accommodate themselves to man's negli- 
gence or folly, it is obvious that this faculty would be without 
an object, and that no definite course of action could be en- 
tered upon with confidence in the result. If, then, this view 
of the constitution of nature were kept steadily in mind, the 
occurrence of one accident of this kind would stimulate reflec- 
tion to discover means of avoiding another. 

Similar illustrations and commentaries might be given, in 
regard to the other physical laws to which man is subject ; 
but the object of the present essay being merely to evolve 
principles, I confine myself to gravitation, as the most obvi- 
ous and best understood. 

I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise of intellect, 
man may absolutely guarantee himself against all accidents, 
but only that the more ignorant and careless he is, the more 
will he suffer — and the more intelligent and vigilant, the less ; 
and that I can perceive no limits to this rule. The law of 
most civilized countries recognizes this principle, and subjects 
owners of ships, coaches, and other vehicles, in reparation of 
damage arising from gross infringements of the physical laws. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 115 

it is unquestionable that the enforcement of this liability ha* 
given increased security to travellers in no trifling degree. 

SECT. II. ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 

It is a very common error to imagine that the feelings of 
the mind are communicated to it through the medium of the 
intellect ; and, in particular, that if no indelicate objects reach 
the eyes, or expressions penetrate the ears, perfect purity will 
necessarily reign within the soul : and, carrying this mistake 
into practice, they are prone to object to all discussion of the 
subjects treated of under the " Organic Laws," in works de- 
signed for general use. But their principle of reasoning is 
fallacious, and the result has been highly detrimental to 
society. The feelings have existence and activity distinct 
from the intellect; they spur it on to obtain their own gratifi- 
cation ; and it may become either their guide or their slave, 
according as it is, or is not, enlightened concerning their 
constitution and objects, and the laws of nature to which 
they are subjected. The most profound philosophers have 
inculcated this doctrine, and by phrenological observation it 
is demonstratively established. The organs of the feelings 
are distinct from those of the intellectual faculties ; they are 
larger ; and as each faculty, cseteris paribus, acts with vigor 
proportionate to the size of its organs, the feelings are obvi- 
ously the more active or impelling powers. The cerebellum,, 
or organ of Amativeness, is the largest of the whole mental 
organs ; and, being "endowed with natural activity, it fills the 
mind spontaneously with emotions and suggestions, the out- 
ward manifestation of which may be directed, controlled, and 
resisted, by intellect and moral sentiment, but which cannot 
be prevented from arising, or eradicated after they exist. The 
whole question, therefore, resolves itself into this : Whether 
it is more beneficial to enlighten the understanding so as to 
dispose and enable it to control and direct that feeling — or 
(under the influence of an error in philosophy, and false 
delicacy founded on it) to permit it to riot in all the fierce- 
ness of a blind animal instinct withdrawn from the eye of 
reason, but not thereby deprived of its vehemence and impor- 
tunity 1 The former course appears to me to be the only one 
consistent with reason and morality ; and I shall adopt it in 
reliance on the good sense of my readers, that they will at 
once discriminate between practical instruction concerning 
8 10* 



114 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

this feeling addressed to the intellect, and lascivious representa- 
tions addressed to the mere propensity itself — with the latfcet 
of which the enemies of all improvement may attempt to 
confound my observations. Every function of the mind and 
body is instituted by the Creator: each has a legitimate 
sphere of activity : but all may be abused ; and it is imposible 
regularly to avoid abuse of them, except by being instructed 
in their nature, objects, and relations. This instruction ought 
*o be addressed exclusively to the intellect ; and when it is 
so, it is science of the most beneficial description. The pro- 
priety, nay necessity, of acting on this principle, becomes 
more and more apparent, when it is considered that such 
discussions suggest only intellectual ideas to individuals in 
such whom the feeling in question is naturally weak, and that 
minds perceive no indelicacy in knowledge which is calcu- 
lated to be useful ; while, on the other hand, persons in whom 
the feeling is naturally strong, are precisely those who stand 
in need of direction, and to whom of all others, instruction is 
the most necessary. 

An organized being is one which derives its existence from a 
previously existing organized being — which subsists on food, 
grows, attains maturity, decays, and dies. "Whatever the 
ultimate object of the Creator, in constituting organized 
beings, may be, it will scarcely be denied that part of His 
design is, that they should enjoy their existence here ; and, 
if so, the object of every part of their structure ought to be 
found conducing to this end. To render an organized being 
perfect in its kind, the first law that must be observed is, that 
the germ from which it springs shall be complete in all its 
parts, and sound in its whole constitution : the second is, that 
the moment it is ushered into life, and as long as it continues 
to live, it shall be supplied with food, light, air, and every 
other aliment necessary for its support ; and the third law is, 
that it shall duly exercise its functions. When all these laws 
are obeyed, the being should enjoy pleasure from its organized 
frame, if its Creator is benevolent ; and its constitution should 
be so adapted to its circumstances, as to admit of ooedience 
to them, if its Creator is wise and powerful. Is there, then, 
no such phenomenon on earth, as a human being existing in 
full possession of organic vigor, from' birth till advanced age, 
when the organized system is fairly worn out 1 Numberless 
examples of this kind have occurred, and they show to 
demonstration, that the corporeal frame of man is so consti- 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE 0RGA5.IC LAWS. 115 

tutcd as to admit the possibility of his enjoying health and 
vigor during the whole period of a long life. It is mentioned 
in the Life of Captain Cook, that " one circumstance pecu- 
liarly worthy of notice is the perfect and uninterrupted health 
of the inhabitants of New Zealand. In all the visits made 
to their tow us, where old and young, men and women, 
crowded about our voyagers, they never observed a single 
person who appeared to have any bodily complaint; nor 
among the numbers that were seen naked, was once per- 
ceived the slightest eruption upon the skin, or the least mark 
which indicated that such an eruption had formerly existed. 
Another proof of the health of these people is the facility 
with which the wounds they at any time receive are healed. 
In the man who had been shot with the musket ball through 
the fleshy part of his arm, the Wound seemed to be so well 
digested, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed, that 
if Mr. Cook had not known that no application had been 
made to it, he declared that he should certainly have inquired, 
with a very interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and 
surgical art of the country. An additional evidence of hu- 
man nature's being untainted with disease in New Zealand, 
is the great number of old men with which it abounds. Many 
of them, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be 
very ancient, and yet none of them were decrepid. Although 
they were not equal to the young in muscular strength, they 
did not come in the least behind them with regard to cheerful- 
ness and vivacity. Water, as far as our navigators could 
discover, is the universal and only liquor of the New Zea- 
landers. It is greatly to be wished that their happiness in 
this respect may never be destroyed by such a connexion 
with the European nations, as shall introduce that fondness 
for spirituous liquors which hath been so fatal to the Indians 
of North America." — Kippis's Life of Captain Cook. Dub- 
lin, 1788, p. 100. 

In almost every country, individuals are to be found, who 
have escaped from sickness during the whole course of a 
protracted life. 

For, as a natural law never admits of an exception, this 
excellent health could not occur in any individuals unless it 
were fairly within the capabilities of the race. 

The sufferings of women in childbed have been cited as 
evidence that the Creator has not intended the human being, 
under any circumstances, to execute all its functions entirely 






»/6 OS THE ETILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

free from pain. But, besides the obvious answer, that the 
objection applies only to one sex, and is therefore not to 
be too readily presumed to have its origin in nature, there is 
good reason to deny the assertion, and to ascribe the suffering 
in question to departures from the natural laws, in either the 
structure or the habits of the individuals who experience it* 
The advantage of studying the finest models of the human 
figure, as exhibited in painting and sculpture, is to raise our 
ideas of the excellence of form and proportion to which our 
nature is capable of attaining; for, other conditions being 
equal, the most perfect forms and proportions are always the 
best adapted for health and activity. 

Let us hold, then, that the organized system of man, in 
itself, admits of the possibility of health, vigor, and organic 
enjoyment; during the full period of life ; and proceed to in- 
quire into the causes why these advantages are not universal. 
One organic law, I have stated, is, that the germ of the 
infant being must be complete in all its parts, and perfectly 
sound in its condition, as an indispensable requisite to vigor- 
ous development and full enjoyment of existence. If an 
agriculturist sow corn that is weak, wasted, and damaged, the 
plants that spring from it will be feeble, and liable to speedy 
decay. The same law holds good in the animal kingdom ; 
and I would ask, has it hitherto been observed by man 1 
Notoriously it has not. Indeed its existence has been either 
altogether unknown, or in a very high degree disregarded by 
human beings. The feeble, the sickly, the exhausted with 
age, and the incompletely developed through extreme youth, 
marry, and, without the least compunction regarding the 
organization which they shall transmit to their offspriug, send 
into the world miserable beings, the very rudiments of whose 
existence are tainted with disease. If we trace such conduct 
to its source, we shall find it to originate either in animal 
propensity, or in ignorance, or more frequently in both. The 
inspiring motives are generally sensual appetite, avarice, or 
ambition, operating in the absence of all just conceptions of 
the impending evils. The punishment of this offence is de- 
bility and pain transmitted to the children, and reflected back 
in anxiety and sorrow on the parents. Still the great point 
to be kept in view is, that these miseries are not legitimate 
consequences of observance of the organic laws, but the 

* See Appendix, No. IV. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 117 

direct chastisement of their infringement. These laws are 
unbending, and admit of no exception ; they must be fulfilled, 
or the penalties of disobedience will follow. On this subject 
profound ignorance reigns in society. From such observa- 
tions as I have been able to make, I am convinced that the 
union of certain temperaments and combination of mental 
organs in the parents, is highly conducive to health, talent, 
and morality in the offspring, and vice versa; and that these 
conditions may be discovered and taught with far greater 
certainty, facility, and advantage, than is generally imagined. 
It will be time enough to conclude that men are naturally 
incapable of obedience to the organic laws, when, after their 
intellectual faculties and moral sentiments have been trained 
to observance of the Creator's institutions, as at once their 
duty, their interest, and a grand source of their enjoyment, 
they shall be found in continued rebellion. 

A second organic law regards nutriment, which must be 
supplied of a suitable kind, and in due quantity. This law 
requires also free air, light, cleanliness, and attention to every 
physical arrangement by which the functions of the body may 
be strengthened or impaired. Have mankind, then, acted in 
accordance with, or neglected, this institution 1 I need scarcely 
answer the question. To be able to conform to institutions, 
we must first know them. Before we can know the organic 
constitution of our body, we must study it, and the study of the 
juman constitution is anatomy and physiology. Before we 
;an become acquainted with its relations to external objects, 
*re must learn the existence and qualities of these objects (un- 
folded by chemistry, natural history, and natural philosophy), 
and compare them with the constitution of the human body. 
When we have fulfilled these conditions, we shall be better 
able to discover the laws which the Creator has instituted in 
regard to our organic system.* 

It will be said, however, that such studies are impracticable 
to the great bulk of mankind, and, besides, do not appear much 
to benefit those who pursue them. They are impracticable 
only while mankind prefer founding their public and private 
institutions on the basis of the propensities, instead of on that 
of the moral sentiments. I have mentioned, that exercise of 

* In " Physiology applied to Health and Education," by Dr. A. 
Combe, to which I refer, the organic laws are expounded in detail, 
and manj striking examples are given of the infringement of these 
laws, and of its injurious consequences. 



/18 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

the nervous and muscular systems is required of all the race 
by the Creator's fiat ; that if all who are capable would obey 
this law, a moderate amount of exertion, agreeable and salu- 
brious in itself, would suffice to supply our wants, and to sur- 
round us with every beneficial luxury ; and that a large portion 
of unemployed time would remain. The Creator has bestowed 
on us Knowing Faculties, fitted to explore the facts of these 
sciences, Reflecting Faculties to trace their relations, and Mo- 
ral Sentiments calculated to feel interest in such investigation^ 
and to lead us to reverence and obey the laws which they un* 
fold ; and, finally, He has made this occupation, when entered 
upon with the view of tracing His power and wisdom in the 
subject of our studies, and of discovering and obeying His in- 
stitutions, the most delightful and invigorating of all vocations. 
Instead, then, of such a course of education being impractica- 
ble, every arrangement of the Creator appears to be prepared 
in direct anticipation of its actual accomplishment. 

The second objection, that those who study these sciences 
are not more healthy and happy, as organized beings, than 
those who neglect them, admits of an easy answer. They 
may have inherited feeble frames from their parents. Be* 
sides, only parts of these sciences have been taught to a few 
individuals, whose main design in studying them has been to 
apply them as means of acquiring wealth and fame ; but they 
have nowhere been taught as connected parts of a great sys- 
tem of natural arrangements, fraught with the highest influ- 
ences of human enjoyment ; and in almost no instance have 
the intellect and moral sentiments been systematically directed 
to the natural laws, as the grand fountains of happiness and 
misery to the race, and trained to observe and obey them as 
the institutions of the Creator. In cases where physiology, 
natural history, and natural philosophy, have been properly 
studied, the objection alluded to is at variance with experience 
and fact. 

A third organic law is, that all our functions shall be duly 
exercised ; and is this law observed by mankind ] Many per 
sons are able, from experience, to attest the severity of the 
punishment that follows neglect to exercise the muscular 
system, in the lassitude, indigestion, irritability, debility, and 
general uneasiness that attend a sedentary and inactive life : 
But the penalties that attach to neglect of exercising the 
brain are much less known, and therefore I shall notice them 
more at length. The following is the description of the brain 



infringement of the organic laws. 119 

given by Dr. A. Combe, in his work on Physiology applied to 
Health and Education already alluded to. 

"The brain is that large organized mass, which, along 
with its enveloping membranes, completely fills the cavity of i 
the skull. It is the seat of thought, of feeling, and of con- 
sciousness, and the centre towards which all impressions 
made on the nerves distributed through the body are con- 
veyed, and from which the commands of the will are trans- 
mitted to put the various parts in motion. 

u The structure of the brain is so complicated, that less is 
known of its true nature than of almost any other organ. 
It would therefore be entirely out of place to attempt to de- 
scribe it here, farther than by stating generally its principal 
divisions. On sawing off the top of the skull, and removing 
the firm tough membrane called dura mater (hard mother), 
which adheres closely to its concave surface, the cerebrum or 
brain proper presents itself, marked on the surface with a 
great variety of undulating windings or convolutions, and 
extending from the fore to the back part of the head, some- 
what in the form of an ellipse. The annexed cut Fig. 1. 
represents the convolutions as seen on the upper surface of the 

Fig. L — upper surface of the brain. 
A 




120 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND 

brain. In the middle line, from A to B, a deep cleft or fissure 
is perceived, separating the brain, in its whole length, into two 
halves, or hemispheres, as they are called. Into this cleft dips 
a tight still' membrane, resembling a scythe in shape, and hence 
called the falx (scythe), or sometimes, from its being a mere 
fold of the dura mater, the j aid form (scythe-like) process of 
the dura mater. From its dipping down between the two halves 
of the brain, the chief purpose of this membrane seems to be to 
relieve the one side from the pressure of the other, when we 
are asleep, for example, or have the head reclining to either 
side. The membrane does not descend to the bottom of the 
brain, except in a small part, at the front and back, G G in 
Fig. 2. It descends about two-thirds of the depth of the 
whole brain. At the point where it terminates, a mass of 
fibres, named the corpus callosum, passes between and con- 
nects the two hemispheres. The convolutions represented in 
Fig. 1. belong chiefly to the coronal region, and manifest the 
moral sentiments." 

The cut Fig. 2, represents the convolutions lying at the 
base of the brain. 

" Each half or hemisphere of the brain is, in its turn, di- 
vided — but in a less marked way, as the divisions are observa- 
ble only on its inferior surface — into three portions, called, 
from their situations, the anterior middle, and posterior lobes, 
each occupying nearly a third of the whole length of the brain. 
The anterior lobe, being the portion lying before the dotted 
line E E, occupies the forehead ; the middle is all the por- 
tion lying between the two transverse lines E E and F F, 
above and a little in front of the ears; and the posterior 
lobe is that portion lying behind the transverse line F F, and 
corresponding to the back part of the head. 

" Beneath the posterior lobe, a strong fold of the dura mater, 
called the tentorium, is extended horizontally to support and 
separate it from the cerebellum, A A, or little brain, lying 
below it. The cerebellum forms the last great division of the 
contents of the skull. Its surface is marked by convolutions, 
differing, how r ever, in size and appearance from those observed 
in the brain. 

" Adhering to the surface of the convolutions, and conse- 
quently dipping down into, and lining the sulci or furrows 
between them, another membrane, of a finer texture, and 
greater vascularity, called pia mater, is found. The blood- 
vessels going to the brain branch out so extensively on the 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 121 

pia mater, that, when a little inflamed, it seems to constitute 
a perfect vascular network. This minute subdivision is of 
use in preventing the blood from being impelled with too 
great force against the delicate tissue of the brain. 

" A third covering, called the arachnoid membrane, from 

F IC . 2. UNDER SURFACE OF THE BRAIN. 

G 



its fineness resembling that of a spider's web, is interpose^ 
between the other two, and is frequently the seat of disease. 
" On examining the convolutions in different brains, they 
are found to vary a good deal in size, depth, and general 
appearance. In the various regions of the same brain they 
are also different, but preserve the same general aspect 
Thus they are always small and numerous in the anterior 
lobe, larger and deeper in the middle, and still larger in the 
posterior lobe. The thick cord or root C, springing from the 
base of the brain, is named the medulla oblongata, or oblong 
portion of the spinal marrow, which is continued downwards, 
and fills the cavity of the spine or back-bone. At one time 
the brain has been regarded as proceeding from, and at anothei 
11 



1213 038 THE EVILS THaT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

as giving rise to, the spinal marrow ; but, in reality, the two 
are merely connected, and neither grows from the other. 
The false uialogy of a stem growing from a root has led to 
this abuse of language. 

" The small round filaments or cords seen to proceed from 
the sides of the medulla oblongata, and from near the base 
of the brain, are various nerves of sensation and motion, 
seme of them going to the organs of sense, and others to the 
ekin and muscles of the face, head, and other more distant 
parts. The long flat-looking nerve a a, lying on the surface 
of the anterior lobe, is the olfactory, or nerve of smell, going 
to the nose. The round thick nerve 4 4, near the roots of 
the former, is the optic, or nerve of vision, going to the eye. 
That marked b is the motor nerve which supplies the muscles 
of the eyeball. A little farther back, the fifth pair c, is seen 
to issue apparently from the arch D, called pons Varolii, or 
bridge of Varolius. It is a large compound nerve, and divides 
into three branches, which are ramified on almost all the 
parts connected with the head and face, and the upper and 
under jaw. It is a nerve of both sensation and motion, and 
one branch of it ramified on the tongue is the nerve of taste. 
Other branches supply and give sensibility to the teeth, glands, 
and skin. The seventh, or auditory nerve e, is distributed 
on the internal ear, and serves for hearing. The eighth, or 
pneumogastric nerve d, sends filaments to the windpipe, 
lungs, heart, and stomach, and is one of great importance in 
.the production of the voice and respiration. It also influ- 
ences the action of the heart, and the process of digestion. 

" Such are the principal nerves more immediately connected 
with the brain, but which it is impossible to describe more 
minutely here. Those which supply the trunk of the body 
and the extremities, issue chiefly from the spinal marrow; 
Dut they also must, for the present, be passed over in silence, 
that we may return to the consideration of the brain. 

" The brain receives an unusually large supply of blood in 
comparison with the rest of the body : but the nature of it* 
circulation, although a very interesting subject of study, bein^ 
©nly indirectly connected with our present purpose, cannot 
now be discussed." 

The brain is the fountain of nervous energy to the whole 
body, and many individuals are habitual invalids, without 
actually laboring under any ordinary recognized disease, 
solely from defective or irregular exercise of the nervous sya* 



INFRINGEMENT OP THE ORGANIC LAWS. 123 

tern. In such cases, not only the mind, in its feelings and 
intellectual capacities, suffers debility, but all the functions 
of the body participate in its languor, because all of them 
receive a diminished and vitiated supply of the nervous 
stimulus, a due share of which is essential to their healthy 
action. The best mode of increasing the strength and en- 
ergy of any organ and function, is to exercise them regularly 
and judiciously, according to the laws of their constitution.* 
The brain is the organ of the mind; different parts of it 
manifest distinct faculties ; and the power of manifestation in 
regard to each is proportionate, caeteris paribus, to the size 
of the organ. The brain partakes of the general qualities of 
the organized system, and is strengthened by the same means 
as the other organs. When the muscles are called into viva- 
cious activity, an increased influx of blood and nervous 
stimulus takes place in them, and their vessels and fibres 
become at once larger, firmer, and more susceptible of action- 
Thought and feeling are to the brain what bodily exercise is 
to the muscles ; they put it into activity, and cause increased 
action in its bloodvessels, and an augmented elaboration of 
nervous energy. In a case reported by Dr. Pierquin, ob- 
served by him in one of the hospitals of Montpelier in 1821, 
he saw, in a female patient part of whose skull had been 
removed, the brain motionless and lying within the cranium 
when she was in a dreamless sleep ; in motion and protruding 
without the skull when she was agitated by dreams ; more 
protruded in dreams reported by herself to be vivid ; and still 
more so when perfectly awake, and especially if engaged in 
active thought or sprightly conversation. Similar cases ar* 
reported by Sir Astley Cooper and Professor Blumenbach.f 

Those parts of the brain which manifest the feelings, con- 
stitute by far the largest portion of it, and they are best exer- 
cised by discharging the active duties of life and religion : tht 
parts which manifest the intellect are smaller, and are exer» 
rised by the application of the understanding in practical 
business, and in the arts, sciences, or literature. 

The first step, therefore, towards establishing the regulai 
exercise of the brain, is to educate and train the mental facul- 
ties in youth; and the second is to place the individual 

* See Dr A. Combe's Phjeiclogj, fcc, 3d edit., pp 147, 102, 277. 

t See American Annals of Phrenology, No. I. p. 37. Sir A. 
Cooper's Lecture's on Burger}, by Tyrrel, vol. i. p. 279 Elliot8on'» 
Blumenbach, 4th edition, p. 283. Phren. Journ. vol. ix. p. 223. 



124 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

habitually in circumstances demanding the discharge of usa* 
*ul and important duties. 

I have often heard the question asked, What is the use of 
education 7 The answer might be illustrated by explaining 
to the inquirer the nature and objects of the various organs 
of the body, such as the limbs, lungs, and eyes, and then 
asking him, if he could perceive any advantage to a being 
so constituted, in obtaining access to earth, air and light 1 
He would at once declare, that they were obviously of the 
very highest utility to him, as affording the only conceivable 
means by which these organs could obtain scope for action, 
which action we suppose him to know to be pleasure. To 
those, then, who know the constitution of the brain as the 
organ of the moral and intellectual powers of man, I need 
only say, that the objects presented by education to the mind, 
bear to it the same relation that the physical elements of 
nature do to the nerves and muscles ; they afford the faculties 
scope for action, and yield them delight. The meaning com- 
monly attached to the word education in such cases, is Greek 
and Latin ; but I employ it to signify knowledge of nature 
and science in all its departments. Again, the signification 
generally attached to the word use in such questions, is, how 
much money, influence, or consideration, will education bring] 
— these being the only objects of strong desire with which 
uncultivated minds are acquainted ; and it is not perceived in 
what way education can greatly gratify such propensities. 
But the moment the mind is opened to the perception of its 
own constitution and to the natural laws, the great advantage 
of moral and intellectual cultivation, as a means of exercising 
and invigorating the brain and mental faculties, and also of 
directing the conduct in obedience to these laws, becomes 
apparent. 

But there is an additional benefit arising from healthy 
activity of brain, which is little known. Different modifica- 
tions oi" the nervous energy elaborated by the brain, appear 
to take place, according to the mode in which the faculties 
and organs are affected. For example, when misfortune and 
disgrace impend over us, the organs of Cautiousness, Self- 
Esteem, and Love of Approbation, are painfully excited, and 
appear to transmit an impaired, or positively noxious, nervous 
influence to the heart, stomach, intestines, and thence to the 
rest of the body ; digestion is deranged, the pulse becomes 
feeble and ir^gular, and the whole corporeal system wastes. 



HCFRINGEMENT OF THE ©RG 13fIC LAWS. 125 

When on the other hand, the cerebral organs are ag.ceablv, 
affected, a benign and vivifying nervous influence pervades 
the frame, and all the functions of the body are performed 
with increased pleasure and success. Now, it is a law, that 
the quantum of nervous energy increases with the number 
of cerebral organs roused to activity, and with the degree of 
that activity itself. In the retreat of the French from Mos- 
cow, for example, when no enemy was near, the soldiers 
became depressed in courage and enfeebled in body, and 
nearly sank to the earth through exhaustion and cold ; bu 
no sooner did the fire of the Russian guns sound in their 
ears, or the gleam of their bayonets flash in their eyes, than 
new life seemed to pervade them. They wielded powerfully 
the arms, which, a few moments before, they could scarcely 
carry or drag on the ground. Scarcely, however, was the 
enemy repulsed, when their feebleness returned. The theory 
of this is, that the approach of the combat called into activity 
a variety of additional faculties; these sent new energy through 
every nerve ; and, while their vivacity was maintained by the 
external stimulus, they rendered the soldiers strong beyond 
their merely physical condition. Many persons have proba- 
bly experienced the operation of the same principle. If, when 
sitting feeble and listless by the fire, we have heard of an 
accident having occurred to some beloved friend who required 
our instantaneous aid, or if an unexpected visitor has arrived, 
in whom our affections were bound up — in an instant our 
lassitude was gone, and we moved with an alertness and 
animation that seemed surprising to ourselves. The cause 
was the same ; these events aroused Adhesiveness, Benevo- 
lence, Love of Approbation, Intellect, and a variety of facul- 
ties which were previously dormant, and their influence 
invigorated the limbs. Dr. Sparman, in his Voyage to the 
Cape, mentions a striking illustration of the principle. "There 
was now again," " says he, " a great scarcity of meat in the 
wagon ; for which reason my Hottentots began to grumble, and 
reminded me that we ought not to waste so much of our 
time in looking after insects and plants, but give a better 
look-out after the game. At the same time, they pointed to 
a neighboring dale overrun with wood, at the upper edge of 
which, at the distance of about a- mile and a quarter from the 
spot where we then were, they had seen several buffaloes. 
Accordingly, we went thither ; but though our fatigue was 
lessened by our Hottentots cam mg our guns for us up a hill. 



126 OS THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FHOM 

yet we were quite out of breath, and overcome by the sun, 
before we got up to it. Yet, what even now appears to me 
a matter of wonder is, that as soon as we got a glimpse of 
the game, all this languor left us in an instant. In fact, we 
each of us strove to fire before the other, so that we seemed 
entirely to have lost sight of all prudence and caution." 

It is part of the same law, that the more agreeable the 
mental stimulus, the more benign is the nervous influence 
transmitted to the body. 

An individual who has received from nature a large and 
tolerably active brain, but who, from possessing wealth suffi- 
cient to remove the necessity for labor, is engaged in no pro- 
fession, and who has not enjoyed the advantages of a scientific 
or extensive education, and takes no interest in moral and 
intellectual pursuits for their own sake, is in general a victim 
to infringement of the natural laws. Persons of this descrip- 
tion, ignorant of these laws, will, in all probability, neglect 
nervous and muscular exercise, and suffer the miseries arising 
from impeded circulation and impaired digestion. In entire 
want of every object on which the energy of their minds 
might be expended, the due stimulating influence of their 
brains on their bodies will be withheld, and the effects of 
muscular inactivity will be thereby aggravated : all the func- 
tions will, in consequence, become enfeebled ; lassitude, uneasi- 
ness, anxiety, and a thousand evils, will arise; and life, in short, 
will become a mere endurance of punishment for infringe- 
ment of institutions calculated in themselves to promote hap- 
piness and afford delight when known and obeyed. This 
fate frequently overtakes uneducated females, whose early 
days have been occupied with business or the cares of a 
family, but whose occupations have ceased before old age has 
diminished corporeal vigor: It overtakes men also, who, 
uneducated, retire from active business in the prime of life. 
In some instances, these evils accumulate to such a degree 
that the brain at length gives way, and insanity is the conse- 
quence. 

It is worthy of remark, that the more elevated the objects 
of our study, the higher in the scale are the mental organs 
which are exercised; and that the higher the organs, the 
more pure and intense is the pleasure : hence, a vivacious 
and regularly supported excitement of the moral sentiments 
and intellect, is, by the organie law, highly favorable to health 
•nd corporval vigor. In the fact of a living animal being 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE OIIGANIC LAWS. 12? 

able to retain life in an oven that will bake dead flesh, Wf 
see an illustration of the organic law rising above the purely 
physical ; and, in the circumstance of the moral and intel- 
lectual organs transmitting the most favorable nervous influ- 
ence to the whole bodily system, we have an example of the 
moral and intellectual law rising higher than the merely 
organic. 

No person, after having his intellect imbued with a percep- 
tion of, and belief in, the natural laws, as now explained, can 
possibly desiie continued idleness as a source of pleasure ; 
nor can he possibly regard muscular exertion and mental 
activity, when not carried to excess, as any thing else than 
enjoyments, kindly vouchsafed to him by the benevolence of 
the Creator. The notion that moderate labor and mental 
exertion are evils, can originate only from ignorance, or from 
viewing the effects of over-exhaustion as the result of the 
natural law, and not as the punishment for infringing it. 

If, then, we sedulously inquire, in each particular instance, 
into the cause of the sickness, pain, and premature death, or 
the derangement of the corporeal frame in youth and middle 
life, which we see so commonly around us ; and endeavor to 
discover whether it originated in obedience to the physical 
and organic laws, or sprang from infringement of them, we 
shall be able to form some estimate as to how far bodily suf- 
fering is justly attributable to imperfections of nature, and 
how far to our own ignorance and neglect of divine institu- 
tions. 

The foregoing principles, being of much practical import- 
ance, may, with propriety, be elucidated by a few actual 
cases. Two or three centuries ago, various cities in Europe 
were depopulated by the plague, and, in particular, London 
was visited by an awful mortality from this cause, in the 
reign of Charles the Second. Most people of that age 
attributed the scourge to the inscrutable decrees of Provi- 
dence, and some to the magnitude of the nation's moral 
iniquities. According to the view now presented, it must 
have arisen from infringement of the organic laws, and have 
been intended to enforce stricter obedience to them in future 
There was nothing inscrutable in its causes or objects. These, 
when clearly analyzed, appear to have had no direct reference 
to the moral condition of the people ; I say direct reference 
to the moral condition of the people — because it would be 
easy to show that the physical, the organic, and all the other 



128 OS THE EVILS THAT BEI^LL XAITKIND FHOM 

natural laws, are connected indirectly, and constituted in 
harmony, with the moral law ; and that infringement of the 
latter often leads to disobedience of other laws, and brings a 
double punishment on the offender. The facts recorded in 
history exactly correspond with the theory now propounded. 
The following is a picture of the condition of the cities of 
Western Europe in the 15th century: — The floors of the 
houses being commonly of clay, and strewed with rushes or 
straw, it is loathsome to think of the filth collected in the 
hovels of the common people, and sometimes in the lodgings 
even of the superior ranks, from spilled milk, beer, grease, 
fragments of bread, flesh, bones, spittle, excrements of cats, 
dogs, &c. To this Erasmus, in a letter 432, c. 1815, ascribes 
the plague, the sweating sickness, &c, in London, which in 
this respect resembled Paris and other towns of a«ny magni- 
tude in those times." — Rankers's History of France, vol. v. 
p. 416. The streets of London were excessively narrow, the 
habits of the people dirty, their food inferior, and no adequate 
provision was made for introducing a plentiful supply of 
water, or removing the filth unavoidably produced by a dense 
population. The great fire in that city, which happened 
soon after the pestilence, afforded an opportunity of reme- 
dying, in some degree, the narrowness of the streets; and 
habits of increasing cleanliness abated the filth : these changes 
brought the people to a closer obedience to the organic laws, 
and no plague has since returned. Again, till very lately, 
thousands of children died yearly of the small-pox ; but, in 
our day, vaccine inoculation saves ninety-nine out of a hun- 
dred, who, under the old system, would have died. The 
theory of its operation has recently been elucidated by Dr. 
Sunderland of Bremen, who has ascertained that cow-pox is 
merely a modification of small-pox, so that in preventing 
small-pox, it acts in accordance with the well-known law 
that certain diseases occur only once. 

A gentleman who died about twenty years ago at an ad- 
vanced period of life, told me, that, six miles west from 
Edinburgh, the country was so unhealthy in his youth, that 
every spring the farmers and their servants were seized with 
fever and ague, and needed regularly to undergo bleeding, 
and a course of medicine, to prevent attacks, or remove their 
eiTects. At that time these visitations were believed to bo 
sent oy Providence, and to be inherent in the constitution «f 
things. After, however, said my informant an approved 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE OIIGANIC LAWS. 1 29 

system o* agriculture and draining was established, and the 
pools of stagnant water, formerly left between the ridges of 
the fields, were removed, dunghills carried to a distance from 
the doors, and the houses themselves made more spacious and 
commodious, every symptom of ague and marsh-fever dis- 
appeared from the district, and it became highly salubrious. 
In other words, as soon as the gross infringement of the 
organic laws was abated by a more active exertion of the 
muscular and intellectual powers of man, the punishment 
ceased. Another friend informed me, that, about fifty years 
ago, he commenced farming in a high and uncultivated dis- 
trict of East-Lothian ; that the crops at first suffered severely 
from cold fogs ; that the whole region, however, has been 
since reclaimed and drained; that the climate has greatly 
improved, and, in particular, that the destructive mists have 
disappeared. The same results have followed in Canada and 
the United States of America, from similar operations. 

In like manner, many calamities occurred in coal-pits, in 
consequence of infringement of a physical law by introducing 
lighted candles and lamps into places filled with hydrogen 
gas, which had emanated from seams of coal, and which ex- 
ploded, and scorched and suffocated the men and animals 
within its reach ; until Sir Humphrey Davy discovered that 
the Creator had established such a relation between flame, 
wire-gauze, and hydrogen-gas, that, by surrounding the flame 
with gauze, its power of exploding hydrogen was suspended. 
By the simple application of a covering of wire-gauze over 
and around the flame, it is prevented from igniting gas be- 
yond it; and colliers are now able to carry, with safety, 
lighted lamps into places highly impregnated with inflam- 
mable air. I have been informed, that the accidents from 
explosion, which still occasionally occur in coal-mines, arise 
from neglecting to keep the lamps in perfect condition. 

It is needless to multiply examples in support of the pro- 
position, that the organized system of man, in itself, admits 
of a healthy existence from infancy to old age, provided its 
germ has been healthy, and its subsequent condition uni- 
formly in harmony with the physical and organic laws. But 
it has been objected, that, although the human faculties may 
perhaps be adequate to discover these laws, and to record 
them in books, they are totally incapable of retaining them in 
the memory, and of formally applying them in every act of 
life. If, it is said, we would not move a step without calcur 
9 



130 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

lating the effects of the law of gravitation and adjusting the 
body to its influence, and could never eat a meal without 
squaring our appetite by the organic laws, life would be 
oppressed by the pedantry of knowledge, and rendered mise- 
rable by the observance of trivial details. The answer to 
this objection is, that our faculties are adapted by the Cieator 
to the external world, and act instinctively when their objects 
are properly placed before them. In walking during the day 
on a footpath in the country, we adjust our steps to the ine- 
qualities of the surface, without being overburdened by mental 
calculation Indeed, we perform this adjustment with so little 
trouble, that we are not aware of having made any particular 
mental or muscular effort. But, on returning by the same 
path at night, when we cannot see, we stumble, and discover, 
for the first time, how important a duty our faculties had 
been performing during the day, without our having ad- 
verted to their labor. Now, the simple medium of light is 
sufficient to bring clearly before our eyes the inequalities of 
the ground ; but to make the mind equally familiar with the 
nature of the countless objects which abound in external 
nature, and their relations, an intellectual light is necessary, 
which can be struck out only by exercising and applying the 
knowing and reflecting faculties ; — when that light is obtained, 
and the qualities and relationships in question are clearly 
perceived, our faculties, so long as the light lasts, will act 
instinctively in adapting our conduct to the nature of the 
objects, just as they do in accommodating our movements to 
the unequal surface of the earth. After the poisonous quali- 
ties of hemlock are known, it is no more necessary for us to 
go through a course of reasoning on physical, botanical, and 
chemical subjects, in order to be able to abstain from eating 
it, than it is to go through a course of mathematical investi- 
gation, before lifting the one foot higher than the other, in 
ascending a stair. At present, physical and political science, 
morals, and religion, are not taught as parts of one connected 
system ; nor are the relations between them and the constitu- 
tion of man pointed out to the world. Consequently, theo- 
retical and practical knowledge are widely separated. This 
ought not to be the case ; for many advantages would flow 
from scientific education. Some of these would be the fol- 
lowing : — 

In the first place, the physical and organic laws, when 
truly discovered, appear to the mind as institutions of tiw» 



rXFRIXGEMEXT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 13 i 

Cieator ; wise and salutary in themselves, unbending in their 
operation, and universal in their application. They interest 
our intellectual faculties, and strongly impress our sentiments. 
The necessity of obeying them comes home to us with all 
the authority of a mandate from God. While we confine 
ourselves to mere recommendations to beware of damp, to 
observe temperance, or to take exercise, without explaining 
the principle, the injunction carries only the weight due to 
the authority of the individual who gives it, and is addressed 
to only two or three faculties — Veneration and Cautiousness, 
for instance, or Self-Love, in him who receives it. But if we 
be made acquainted with the elements of the physical worlei, 
and with those of our organized system — with the uses of the 
different parts of the human body, and the conditions neces- 
sary to their healthy action — with the causes of their derange- 
ment, and the pains consequent thereon ; and if the obliga- 
tion to attend to these conditions be enforced on our moral 
sentiments and intellect, as a duty which is imposed on us by 
the Creator, and which we cannot neglect without suffering 
punishment; then the motives to observe the physical and 
organic laws, as well as the power of doing ho, will be pro- 
digiously increased. Before we can dance well, not only must 
we know the motions, but our muscles must be trained to 
execute them ; and, in like manner, to enable us to act on 
precepts, not only must we comprehend their meaning, but 
our intellects and sentiments must be disciplined into actual 
performance. Now, the very act of acquiring connected sci- 
entific information concerning the natural world, its qualities, 
and their relations, is to the intellect and sentiments what 
dancing is to the muscles : it invigorates them ; and, as obe- 
dience to the natural laws must spring from them, exercise 
renders it more easy and delightful. 

Secondly, It is only by being taught the principle on which 
consequences depend, that we become capable of perceiving 
the invariabkness of the results of the physical and oiganie 
laws, acquire confidence in, and respect for, the laws them- 
selves, and fairly endeavor to accommodate our conduct to 
their operation. Dr. Johnson defines "principle" to be "fun- 
damental truth ; original postulate ; first position from which 
others are deduced ;" and in these senses I use the word. 
The human faculties are instinctively active, and desire grati- 
fication ; but Intellect must have fixed data, on which to 
reason, otherwise it is itself a mere impulse. The man is 



132 ON THE EYILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FItOX 

whom Constmctiveness and Weight are powerful, will natu- 
rally betake himself to constructing machinery ; but if he be 
ignorant of the principles of mechanical science, he will not 
direct his efforts to such important ends, nor attain them with 
so much success, as if his intellect had been stored with this 
kind of knowledge. Scientific principles are deduced from 
the laws of nature. A man may make music by the in- 
stinctive impulse of Tune and Time; but there are immu- 
table laws of harmony, of which if he be ignorant, he will 
not perform so correctly and in such good taste, as he would 
do if he knew them. In every art and science there are 
principles referable solely to the constitution of nature, but 
these admit of countless applications. A musician may pro- 
duce gay, grave, solemn, or ludicrous tunes, all good of their 
kind, but following the laws of harmony ; but he will never 
produce one good piece by violating them. "While the inhabi- 
tants west of Edinburgh allowed the stagnant pools to deface 
their fields, some seasons would be more healthy than others; 
and while the cause of the disease was unsuspected, this 
would confirm them in the notion that health and sickness 
were dispensed by an overruling Providence, on inscrutable 
principles, which they could not comprehend : but the mo- 
ment the cause was known, it would be found that the most 
healthy seasons were those which were cold and dry, and the 
most sickly those which were warm and moist; and they 
would then discover, that the superior salubrity of one year, 
and unwholesomeness of another, were clearly referable to 
one principle ; and after perceiving this truth, they would 
both be more strongly prompted to apply the remedy, and be 
rendered morally and intellectually more capable of doing so. 
If some intelligent friend had merely told them to drain their 
fields, and remove their dunghills, they would probably not 
have complied with his recommendation ; but whenever their 
intellects were led to the perception that the evils would con- 
tinue until they acted in this manner, the improvement would 
become easy. 

The truth of these views may be still further illustrated by 
examples. A young gentleman of Glasgow, whom I knew, 
went out, as a merchant, to North America. Business re- 
quired him to sail from New York to St. Domingo. The 
weather was hot, and he, being very sick, found the confine* 
ment below deck, in bed, as he said, intolerable ; that is, this 
confinement was, for the moment, more painful than the 



IKTIIO/IEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 133 

course which he' adopted, of laying himself down at full 
length on the deck, in the open air. He was warned by his 
fellow passengers, and the officers of the ship, that he' would 
inevitably induce fever by his proceeding ; but he was utterly 
ignorant of the physical and organic laws : his intellect had 
been trained to regard only wealth and present pleasure as 
objects of real importance ; it could perceive no necessary 
connexion between exposure to the mild grateful sea-breeze 
of a warm climate, and fever ; and he obstinately refused to 
quit his position. The consequence was, that he was soon 
taken ill, and died the day after arriving at St. Domingo. 
Knowledge of chemistry and physiology would have enabled 
him, in an instant, to understand that the sea air, in warm 
climates, holds a prodigious quantity of water in solution, 
and that damp and heat, operating together on the human 
organs, tend to derange their healthy action, and ultimately 
to destroy them entirely : and if his sentiments had been 
deeply imbued with a feeling of the indispensable duty of 
yielding obedience to the institutions of the Creator, he w r ould 
have actually enjoyed not only a greater desire, but a greater 
power, of supporting the temporary inconvenience of the 
heated cabin, and might by possibility have escaped death. 

A medical gentleman, well known in the literary world, 
has favored me with the following particulars, suggested by a 
perusal of the second edition of the present work :• — On four 
several occasions I have nearly lost my life from infringing 
the organic laws. When a lad of fifteen, I brought on, by 
excessive study, a brain fever, which nearly killed me ; at 
the age of nineteen I had an attack of peritonitis (inflam- 
mation of the lining membrane of the abdomen), occasioned 
by violent efforts in wrestling and leaping ; while in France 
nine years ago, I was laid up with pneumonia (inflammation 
of the lungs), brought on by dissecting in the great galleries 
of La Pitie, with my coat and hat off in the month of De- 
cember, the windows next to me being constantly open ; and 
in 1829 I had a dreadful fever, occasioned by walking home 
from a party at which I had been dancing, in an exceedingly 
cold morning, without a cloak or great-coat. I was for tour 
months on my back, and did not recover perfectly for more 
than eighteen months. All these evils were entirely of my 
own creating, and arose from a foolish violation of laws 
which every sensible man ought to observe and regulate him- 
self by. Indeed, I have always thought — and your book 
12 



134 ON THE ETILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

confirms me more fully in the sentiment — that, hy proper 
attention, crime and disease, and misery of every sort, could, 
in a much greater measure than is generally believed, be 
banished from the earth, and that the true method of doing 
so is to instruct people in the laws which govern their own 
frame." 

Captain Murray, R. N., mentioned to Dr. A. Combe, that, 
in his opinion, most of the bad effects of the climate of th# 
West Indies might be avoided by care and attention U 
clothing ; and that so satisfied was he on this point, that he 
had petitioned to be sent there in preference to the North 
American station, and had no reason to regret the change. 
The measures which he adopted, and their effects, are de- 
tailed in the following interesting and instructive letter : — 

" Assynt, April 22, .1827. 

"Mi Dear Sir, — I should have written to you before 
this, had I not been anxious to refer to some memorandums, 
which I could not do before my return home from Coul. I 
attribute the great good health enjoyed by the crew of his 
Majesty's ship Valorous, when on the West India station, 
during the period I had the honor of commanding her, to the 
following causes : — 1st, To the keeping the ship perfectly dry 
and clean; 2d, To habituating the men to the wearing of 
flannel next the skin; 3d, To the precaution I adopted, of 
giving each man a proportion of his allowance of cocoa before 
he left the ship in the morning, either for the purpose of 
watering, or any other duty he might be sent upoL and, 
4/ h, To the cheerfulness of the crew. 

"The Valorous sailed from Plymouth on the 24th De- 
cember, 1823, having just returned from the coast of Lab- 
rador and Newfoundland, where she had been stationed 
two years, the crew, including officers, amounting to 150 
men. I had ordered the purser to draw two pairs of flannel 
drawers and two shirts extra for each man, as soon as I knew 
that our destination was the West Indies ; and, on our sailing, 
I issued two of each to every man and boy in the ship, making 
the officers of each division responsible for the men of their 
respective divisions wearing these flannels during the day and 
night ; and, at the regular morning nine o'clock musters, I 
inspected the crew personally ; for you can hardly conceive 
the difficulty I have had in forcing some of the men to usa 
flannel at first ; although I never yet knew one who did not, 
from choice, adhere to it, when once fairly adopted. The 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 136 

only precaution after this was to see that, in bad weather, the 
watch, when relieved, did not turn in in their wet clothes, 
which the young hands were apt to do, if not looked after; 
and their flannels were shifted every Sunday. 

" Whenever fresh beef and vegetables could be procured at 
the contract price, they were always issued in preference to 
alt provisions. Lime juice was issued whenever the men 
ad been fourteen days on ship's provisions ; and the crew 
vOok all their meals on the main deck, except in very bad 
weather. 

" The quarter and main decks were scrubbed with sand 
and water, and wet holy-stones, every morning at daylight. 
The lower deck, cockpit, and store-rooms, were scrubbed 
every day after breakfast, with dry holy-stones and hot sand, 
until quite white, the sand being carefully swept up, and 
thrown overboard. The pump-well was also swabbed out 
dry, and then scrubbed with holy-stones and hot sand ; and 
here, as well as in every part of the ship which was liable to 
damp, Brodie-stoves weie constantly used, until every ap- 
pearance of humidity vanished. The lower deck and cock- 
pit were washed once every week in dry weather ; but Brodie^ 
stoves were constantly kept burning in them, until they were 
quite dry again. 

" The hammocks were piped up and in the nettings, from 
7 a.m. until dusk, when the men of each watch took down 
their hammocks alternately ; by which means, only one-half 
of the hammocks being down at a time, the 'tween decks 
were not so crowded, and the watch relieved was sure of 
turning into a dry bed on going below. The bedding was 
aired every week once at least. The men were not permitted 
to go on shore in the heat of the sun, or where there was a 
probability of their getting spirituous liquors; but all hands 
were indulged with a run on shore, when out of reach of 
such temptation. 

"I was employed on the coast of Caraccas, the Wes 
India islands, and Gulf of Mexico; and, in course of service 
I visited Trinidad, Margarita, Cocha, Cumana, Nueva Barce 
lona, Laguira, Porto Cabello, and Maracaibo, on the coast ot 
Caraccas ; all the West India islands from Tobago to Cuba, 
both inclusive ; as also Caracoa and Aruba, and several of 
these places repeatedly ; also Vera Cruz and Tampico, in tho 
Gulf of Mexico, which you will admit must have given a 
trial to the constitutions of my men, after two years among 



136 6W THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

the icebergs of Labrador, without an intervening summer 
between that icy coast and the coast of Caraccas; yet 1 
arrived in England on June 24th, without having buried a 
single man or officer belonging to the ship, or indeed having 
a single man on the sick list ; from which I am satisfied that 
a dry ship will always be a healthy one in any climate. 
When in command of the Recruit, of 18 guns, in the year 
1809, I was sent to Vera Cruz where I found the — 46, the 
—- 42, the — 18, and — gun-brig; we were joined by the 
■ — 36, and the — 18. During the penod we remained at 
anchor (from 8 to 10 weeks), the three frigates lost from 30 
to 50 men each, the brigs 16 to 18, the — most of her crew, 
with two different commanders: yet the Recruit, although 
moored in the middle of the squadron, and constant inter- 
course held with the other ships, did not lose a man, and had 
none sick. Now, as some of these ships had been as long in 
the West Indies as the Recruit, we cannot attribute her singu- 
larly healthy state to seasoning, nor can I to superior cleanli- 
ness, because even the breeches of the carronades, and all 
the pins, were polished bright in both — and — , which wa3 
not the case with the Recruit. Perhaps her healthy state may 
be attributed to cheerfulness in the men ; to my never allowing 
them to go on shore in the morning on an empty stomach; 
to the use of dry sand and holy-stones for the ship ; to nevei 
working them in the sun; perhaps to accident. Were 1 
asked my opinion, I would say that I firmly believe that 
cheerfulness contributes more to keep a ship's company 
healthy, than any precaution that can be adopted ; and that, 
with this attainment, combined with the precautions I have 
mentioned, I should sail for the West Indies with as little 
anxiety as I would for any other station. My Valorous fel- 
lows were as cheerful a set as I ever saw collected together." 
Suppose that two gentlemen were to ascend one of the 
Scottish mountains, in a hot summer day, and to arrive at 
the top, bathed in perspiration, and exhausted with fatigue ; 
that one of them knew intimately the physical and organic 
laws, and that, all hot and wearied as he was, he should but- 
ton up his coat closer about his body, wrap a handkerchief 
about his neck, and continue walking at a quick pace, round 
the summit, in the full blaze of the sun ; but that the other, 
ignorant of these laws, should eagerly run to the base of a 
projecting cliff, stretch himself at full length on the turf under 
its refreshing shade, open his vest to the grateful breeze, and 



IXrMNGEMEXT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 13/ 

give himself up entirely to the present luxuries of coolness 
and repose • the former, hy warding off the rapid chill of the 
cold mountain air, would descend with health unimpaired • 
while the latter would carry with him, to a certainty, the 
seeds of rheumatism, consumption, or fever, from permitting 
perspiration to be instantaneously checked, and the surface 
of the body to he cooled with an injurious rapidity. The 
leath of the young Duke de Leuchtenberg, husband of Donna 
Maria, Queen of Portugal, affords a striking example of the 
operation of these principles. On Monday, the 23d of March, 
1835, he, in perfect health, went out to shoot. On returning 
to the palace, he imprudently threw ofF his coat and waist- 
coat, while yet in a state of profuse perspiration. This 
brought on a cold ; slight at first, but which soon began to 
assume a serious character. On Friday the 27th, inflamma- 
tion appeared ; and, on Saturday the 28th, at twenty minutes 
past two p. m., he expired. 

The following case, also illustrative of the points under 
consideration, is one which I had too good an opportunity of 
observing in all its stages. 

An individual in whom it was my duty as well as pleasure 
to be greatly interested, resolved on carrying Mr. Owen's 
views into practical effect, and set on foot an establishment 
on his principles, at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire. The labor 
and anxiety which he underwent at the commencement of 
the undertaking, gradually impaired an excellent constitution ; 
and without perceiving the change, he, by way of setting an 
example of industry, took to digging with the spade, and 
actually wrought for fourteen days at this occupation, although 
previously unaccustomed to labor. This produced haemop- 
tysis, or spitting of blood. Being now unable for such severe 
exertion, he gave up his whole time to directing and instruct- 
ing the people — about 250 in number — and for two or three 
weeks spoke the whole day, the effusion of blood from his 
lungs continuing. Nature sank rapidly under this irrational 
treatment, and at last he came to Edinburgh for medical 
advice. When the structure and uses of his lungs were ex- 
plained to him, and when it was pointed out to him that his 
treatment of them had been equally injudicious as if he had 
thrown lime or dust into his eyes after inflammation, he was 
struck with the extent and consequences of his ignorance, 
and exclaimed, "How greatly should I have been benefited, 
if one month of the five years which I was forced to spend 
12* 



lo8 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

in a vain attempt to acquire a mastery over the Latin tongue ( 
had been dedicated to conveying to me information concerning 
the structure of my body, and the causes which preserve and 
impair the functions !" He had departed too widely from the 
organic laws to admit of an easy return ; he was seized with 
inflammation of the lungs, and with great difficulty got 
through that attack ; but it impaired his constitution so griev- 
ously, that he died after a lingering illness of eleven months. 
He acknowledged, however, even in his severest pain, tha* 
he suffered under a just law. The lungs, he perceived, were 
of prime importance to life, and a motive to their proper 
treatment was provided in this tremendous punishment, in- 
flicted for neglecting the conditions requisite to their health. 
Had he given them rest, and returned to obedience to the 
organic law, at the first intimation of departure from it, the 
way to health was open and ready to receive him ; but, in 
utter ignoiance, he persevered for weeks in direct opposition 
to that law, till the fearful result ensued. 

This last case affords a striking illustration of a principle 
already more than once insisted on, the independence of tlie 
different laws of the Creator, and of the necessity of obeying 
all of them, as the only condition of safety and enjoyment. 
The individual here alluded to, was deeply engaged in a most 
benevolent and disinterested experiment for promoting the 
welfare of his fellow-creatures; and superficial observers 
would say that this was just an example of the inscrutable 
decrees of Providence, which visited him with sickness, and 
ultimately with death, in the very midst of his most virtuous 
exertions. But the institutions of the Creator are wiser than 
the imaginations of such men. The first condition on which 
existence on earth and all its advantages depend, is obedience 
to the physical and organic laws. The benevolent Owenite 
neglected these, in his zeal to obey the moral law ; and since, 
if it were possible to dispense with the one by obeying the 
other, the whole scheme of man's existence would speedily 
be involved in inexplicable disorder, he was made to suffer 
the punishment of his neglect. 

The following case was furnished to me by an actual 
observer: — A gentleman far advanced in years fell into a 
6tate of bodily weakness, which rendered necessary the coi> 
stant presence of an attendant. A daughter, in whom the 
organs of Adhesiveness, Benevolence, and Veneration, were 
largely developed, devoted herself to this service with th« 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 139 

most ceaseless assiduity. She was his companion for month 
after month, and year after year — happy in cheering the last 
days of her respected parent, and knowing no pleasure equal 
to that of solacing and comforting him. For months in suc- 
cession she went not abroad from the house ; her duty became 
dearer to her the longer she discharged it, till at length her 
father became the sole object on earth of her feelings and her 
thoughts. The superficial observer would say that this con- 
duct was admirable, and that she must have received a rich 
reward from Heaven for such becoming and virtuous devo- 
tion. But Providence rules on other principles, and never 
yields. Her enjoyment of mental happiness and vigor de- 
pended on the condition of her brain, and her brain was 
subject to the organic laws. These laws demand, as an indis- 
pensable condition of health, exercise in the open air, and 
variety of employment, calculated to maintain all the facul- 
ties in activity. She neglected the first in her constant 
attendance in her father's chamber; and she overlooked the 
second in establishing him as the exclusive object of her con- 
sideration. The result was, that she fell into bad health, 
accompanied by weakness of brain, extreme irritability and 
susceptibility of mind, excessive anxiety, hysteria, and even 
symptoms of insanity. Some judicious friends at last inter- 
fered, and, by forcing her to leave for a time, although much 
against her inclination, the object of her solicitude, rescued 
her from death, or confirmed mental derangement. If this 
case had been allowed to proceed uninterruptedly to its natu- 
ral termination, many pious persons would have marvelled at 
the mysterious dispensations of Providence in afflicting so 
dutiful a daughter ; whereas, when the principle of the divine 
government is understood, the result appears neither wonder- 
ful nor perplexing. 

In the works of religious authors may be found many 
erroneous views of divine dispensations, traceable to igno- 
rance of the organic laws. The Reverend Ebenezer Erskine, 
speaking of the state of his wife's mind, says, " For a month 
or two the arrows of the Almighty were within her, the poi- 
son whereof did drink up her spirits ; and the terrors of God 
did set themselves in array against her." He called in the 
assistance of some neighboring clergymen to join in prayers 
on her behalf, and she was induced to pray with them ; but 
" she still continued to charge herself with the unpardon- 
able sin, and to conclude that she was a cast-away." Sucb 



.40 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

feelings occurring in a woman of blameless life, clearly indi- 
cated diseased action in the organs of Cautiousness. u Before 
she fell into these depths," he continues, " she told me that 
the Lord gave her such a discovery of the glory of Christ as 
darkened the whole creation, and made all things appear as 
dung and dross in comparison of him." These expressions 
indicate morbid excitement of the organs of Wonder and 
Veneration. She subsequently recovered her mental serenity ; 
and her husband treats of the whole phenomena as purely 
mental and religious. He, however, afterwards incidentally 
mentions that she was subject to bad health, and that " me- 
lancholy was a great ingredient in her disease." We now 
know that melancnoly is a diseased affection of the organs 
of Cautiousness . 

At the time when Mr. Erskine lived and wrote, the physio- 
logy of the brain was unknown ; the occurrences which he de- 
scribes had a real existence ; and he had been taught to attribute 
them to the agency of the Divine Spirit, or the devil, accoding to 
their different characters. He is, therefore, not deserving of 
censure for the errors into which he unavoidably fell; but 
now when the facts which he describes, and analogous occur- 
rences in our own day, can be traced to diseased action of 
the organs of the mind, we are authorized to view the provi- 
dence of God in a different lignt. While it would be sub- 
versive of all religion to throw any doubt whatever on the 
reality and importance of religious feelings, sound in their 
character and directed to proper objects, it is nearly equally 
injurious to the sacred cause, to mistake the excitement and 
depression of disease for the influence of the Holy Spirit, or 
the agency of the enemy of mankind. 

It is further mentioned in the Life of Mr. Erskine, that his 
wife bore several children to him while in precarious health, 
and that the situation " of the manse, or parsonage house, 
was unwholesome." We are told, also, that in the year 1713, 
three of his children died; that one died in 1720; and that, 
n 1723, a fifth was on the brink of death, but recovered.* 
He treats of all these events as " severe trials" and " sore 
afflictions," without having the least glimpse of their true 
causes and objects, or their relation to the natural laws. 

Another illustration will not be out of place. Hannah 



* Life and Diary of the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine. Edinburgh, 1831, 
pp. 266, 301, 286,*290, 320. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 141 

More, in a letter to the Rev. John Newton, dated Cowslip 
Green, 23d July, 1788, says, " When I am in the great world, 
I consider myself as in an enemy's country, and as heset 
with snares, and this puts me upon my guard." " Fears arid 
snares seem necessary to excite my circumspection; for it is 
certain that my mind has more languor, and my faith less 
energy here, where I have no temptations from without, and 
where I live in the full and constant perusal of the most 
beautiful objects of inanimate nature, the lovely wonders ot 
the munificence and bounty of God. Yet in the midst of 
fcis blessings, I should be still more tempted to forget him, 
ivere it not for frequent nervous headaches and low fevers, 
which I find to be wonderfully wholesome for my moral 
health."* 

This passage contains several propositions that merit atten- 
tion. First, according to the natural laws, " the most beautiful 
objects of inanimate nature," and " the lovely wonders of the 
munificence and bounty of God," are calculated to invigorate 
the moral, religious, and intellectual faculties, in all well- 
constituted and rightly instructed minds ; yet Hannah More's 
mind " had more languor, and her faith less energy," amidst 
such objects, than " when beset with snares :" Secondly, ac- 
cording both to the natural laws and scripture, "evil com- 
munications corrupt good manners ;" ,but " when in the great 
world," and "in an enemy's country," her faith was improved: 
And, thirdly, "nervous headaches and low fevers" are the 
consequence of departures from the organic laws, and are 
intended to reclaim the sufferei to obedience that the pain 
may cease ; yet she " found them wonderfully wholesome for 
her moral health," and they prevented her from " forgetting 
God!" 

Only disease, or errors in education, could have producec 
such perverted experience in a woman so talented, so pious 
and so excellent, as Hannah More. Can we wonder tha 
the profane should sneer, and that practical religion shouk 
slowly advance, when piety exhibits itself in such lamentable 
contradiction to the divine institutions? And still more so 
when, from proceeding on a false theory, it contradicts itself 1 
Hannah More, in her Journal in 1794, says, " Confined this 
week with four day's headache — an unprofitable time — 
thoughts wandering — little communion with God. I see by 

* Memoirs of H. Moore, vol. ii. p. 110, 111 



142 ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROM 

every fresh trial, that the time of sickness is seldom tht 
season for religious improvement. This great work should 
be done in health, or it will seldom be done well." — Vol. ii. 
p. 418. This passage is full of sound sense, but it contra- 
dicts her previous assertion, that "nervous headaches and 
low fevers were wonderfully wholesome for her moral health." 

These examples to which many more might be added, 
may serve as illustrations of the proposition, That without a 
philosophy of human nature, even religious authors, when 
treating of sublunary events, cannot always preserve consis- 
tency either with reason or with themselves ; and that hence 
religion can nev.er become thoroughly practical, or put forth 
its full energies for human improvement, until it is wedded to 
philosophy. In proportion as men shall become acquainted 
with the natural laws, and apply them as tests to theological 
writings relative to this world, they will become convinced of 
the truth of this observation. 

Having traced bodily suffering, in the case of individuals, 
to neglect of, or opposition to, the organic laws, by their pro- 
genitors or by themselves, I next advert to another set of 
calamities which may be called social miseries, and which 
obviously spring from the same causes. And first, in regard 
to evils of a domestic nature : — 

One fertile source of unhappiness arises from persons 
uniting in marriage, whose tempers, talents, and dispositions, 
do not harmonize. If it be true that natural talents and dis- 
positions are connected by the Creator with particular con- 
figurations of brain, then it is obviously one of His institutions, 
that, in forming a compact for life, these configurations should 
be attended to. The following facts 1 regard to be fully esta- 
blished by competent evidence. The portion of the brain 
before the line AB, Fig. 1, manifests the intellect, that above 
B C manifests the moral sentiments, and all the rest the ani- 
mal sentiments and propensities; and each part acts, ceteris 
paribus, with a degree of energy corresponding to its size. 
The following figures exhibit these regions of the head ex- 
isting in different proportions in different individuals: and 
the lives of the persons represented bear testimony to their 
possessing the corresponding dispositions. 

The first is a view of the head of William Hare, who, 
acting in concert with the notorious Burke, strangled sixteen 
individuals in Edinburgh, for the purpose of selling theii 
bodies for dissection. 



|fUJW5WiiNT Of THE ORGANIC LAWL 

Fig. 1. — hjlRZ. 



lit 




In *li»s head the organs of the animal propensities deci- 
dedly preponderate over those of the moral sentiments and 
intellect. 

Another example of the sa^ie kind is afforded by the head 
of Williams, who was executed along with the notorious 
Bishop, in London, for the same crime as that of Hare** 
Fig. 2. — williams. 




* B*? Phrenological Jour., vol. vii, p. 446. 



144 



OX THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND i ROM 



In the head of the celebrated Richard Brinsley Sheridan 
(of which a cast was taken after death), we find an example 
of the three regions of the brain in question, existing nearly 
in a state of equilibrium. The natural tendencies of such 
an individual are equally strong towards vice and virtue ; and 
his actual conduct is generally determined by the influence 
of external circumstances. 

Fig. 3. — sheridan. 




The life of Sheridan shows, that while he possessed high 
mental qualities, he was also the slave of degrading and dis- 
creditable vices. 

The head of Philip Melancthon, the illustrious reformei 
and associate of Luther, furnishes an example of the decided 
predominance of the moral and intellectual regions over that 
of the animal propensities. The drawing is copied from a 
portrait by Albert Durer. 

The following description of Melancthon's head and cha 
lacter is given in Dr. Spurzheim's work on Phrenology in 
connexion with Physiognomy. " It is the brain of an extra- 
ordinary man. The organs of the moral and religious feelings 
predominate greatly, and will disapprove of all violence, 
irreverence, and injustice. The forehead betokens a vast and 
comprehensive understanding, and the ensemble a mind the 
noblest, the most amiable, and the most intellectual that can 
be conceived." " Never was any man more civil and obli- 
ging, and more free from jealousy, dissimulation, and envy, 



infringement of the jrganic laws. 
Fig. 4. — melancthow. 




than Melancthon : he was humble, modest, disinterested in 
the extreme ; in a word, he possessed wonderful talents, and 
most noble dispositions. His greatest enemies have been 
forced to acknowledge that the annals of antiquity exhibit 
very few worthies who may be compared with him, whethei 
extent of knowledge in things human and divine, or quick- 
ness of comprehension and fertility of genius, be regarded. 
The cause of true Christianity derived more signal advan- 
tages, and more effectual support, from Melancthon, than it 
received from any of the other doctors of the age. His mild- 
ness and charity, perhaps, carried him too far at times, and 
led him occasionally to make concessions that might be styled 
imprudent. He was the sincere worshipper of truth, but he 
was diffident of himself, and sometimes timorous without any 
sufficient reason. On the other hand, his fortitude in de- 
fending the right was great. His opinions were so universally 
respected, that scarcely any one among the Lutheran doctors 
ventured to oppose them. He was inferior to Luther in 
10 13 



146 



ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FBOM 



courage and intrepidity, but his equal in piety, and muck hit 
superior in learning, judgment, meekness, and humanity. He 
latterly grew tired of his life, and was particularly disgusted 
with the rage for religious controversies, which prevailed 
aniversally."* 

With the head of Melancthon may be contrasted that of 
Pope Alexander VI. 

Fig. 5. — pope alexanbeb vi. 




"This celebral organization, ,, says Dr. Spurzheim, "is 
despicable in the eyes of a phrenologist. The animal organs 
compose by far its greatest portion. Such a brain is no more 
adequate to the manifestation of Christian virtues, than the 
lirain of an idiot from birth to the exhibition of the intellect 
of a Leibnitz or a Bacon. The cervical and whole basilar 
region of the head are particularly developed ; the organs of 
the perceptive faculties are pretty large ; but the sincipital (or 
coronal) region is exceedingly low, particularly at the organs 



* *«enology in Connexion with the Study of Physiognomy, p. 



IJTFItlNGEMENT OF THE ORGA1CIC LAWS. 147 

of Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness. Such 
a head is unfit for any employment of a superior kind, and 
never gives birth to sentiments of humanity. The sphere of 
its activity does not extend beyond those enjoyments which 
minister to the animal portion of human nature. 

" Alexander VI. was, in truth, a scandal to the papal chair : 
from the earliest age he was disorderly and artful, and his life 
to the last was infamous. He is said to have bought the tiara 
by bribing a certain number of cardinals, or rather by making 
large promises, which he never fulfilled. It is well known 
that, when he became Pope, he had a family of five children, 
four boys and one daughter. He made a regular practice of 
selling bishoprics and other ecclesiastical benefices, to enrich 
himself and his family. Though profane and various religious 
writers do not all agree in their judgment concerning the dis- 
orderly conduct of this man, many atrocities committed by 
him are well ascertained facte. History will always accuse 
him of the crimes of poisonings simony, and false-swearing, 
of wretched debauchery, nay, of incest with his own daughter. 
In political matters, he formed alliances with all the princes 
of his time, but his ambition and perfidy never failed to find 
him a pretext for breaking his word, and disturbing the peace." 
* As a singular example of Alexander's arrogance, his bull 
may be mentioned, by which he took upon him to divide the 
new world between the kings of Spain and Portugal, granting 
to the former all the territory on the west of an imaginary 
line passing from north to south, at one hundred leagues' 
distance from the Cape de Verd Islands. Alexander pos* 
sessed eloquence and address, but a total lack of noble senti- 
ments rendered him altogether unfit for his sacred station. 
Poisoned wine, which had been prepared for certain cardinals 
whose riches tempted the cupidity of his holiness, was given 
him by mistake, and ended his profligate career. Some writers 
have questioned the truth of this account of Alexander's 
death, but there is nothing in the relation inconsistent with 
the acknowledged character of this pontiff. Lowness of 
feelings and lowness of brain are seen together."* 

As an additional illustration of this concluding remark, I 
subjoin a representation of the head of Vitellius, one of the 
most cruel and depraved of the Roman Emperors. [See next 
page.] 

* The work above cited, p. 71. 



148 



ON THE EVILS THAT BEFALJ MANKIND FUOM 




This head is very broad in proportion to its height : indi- 
cating a very great development of the base of the brain, 
with deficiency of the organs of the moral sentiments. 

The demarcations in Fig. 1 are not arbitrary. The space 
before A B corresponds to the anterior lobe-of the brain ; and 
the space above B C includes all the convolutions that lie on 
the upper surface of the brain, and rise higher than the organs 
of Cautiousness, corresponding to nearly the middle of the 
parietal bones, and of Causality, situated in the upper part 
of the forehead. It is generally not difficult to distinguish 
these regions ; and a comparison of their relative proportions 
with the talents and dispositions of individuals, will convince 
any intelligent, honest, and accurate observer, of the truth of 
the foregoing statements. I have examined the heads ot 
skulls, and casts of the heads )r skulls, of several hundred 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 149 

criminals of various countries, and found them all to belong 
to the classes represented by the figures of the heads of Hare 
or of Sheridan , and I never saw one of them with a jrai* 
like that of Melancthon. Neither have I ever seen a man 
distinguished by moral and intellectual qualities like those of 
Melancthon, presenting a brain like that of Hare. The 
figures represent nature — not a casual, appearance, but forms 
which are found constantly in combination with the qualities 
here named ; and I ask why Nature, when she speaks to a 
geologist or chemist, should be listened to with profound 
attention, and her revelations treasured for human improve- 
ment — but scouted and despised when she speaks to and is 
interpreted by phrenologists! It is God who speaks from 
nature in all its departments : and the brain is as assuredly 
his workmanship as the Milky Way, with all its myriads of 
suns. If the doctrine before expounded be true, that every 
faculty is good in itself, that the folly and crime that disgrace 
human society spring from abuses of the faculties, and that 
the tendency to abuse them originates in the disproportion of 
certain parts of the brain to each other, and in ignorance of 
the proper mode of manifesting them, how completely do 
these considerations go to the root of theology and morals ! 
At present the influence of organization in determining the 
natural dispositions is altogether neglected or denied by the 
common school of divines, moralists, and philosophers ; yet 
it is of an importance exceeding all other terrestrial influ- 
ences and considerations. 

Tf, under the influence of youthful passion and inexperi- 
ence, an individual endowed with the splendid cerebral 
development of Melancthon, should unite himself for life to 
a female possessing a head like that of Hare, Williams, or 
Vitellius, the effects would not fail to be most disastrous, with 
respect both to his own happiness and to the qualities of his 
offspring. In the first place, after the animal feelings were 
gratified, and their ardor had subsided, the two minds could 
not by any possibility sympathize. Many marriages are un- 
happy in consequence of an instinctive discord between the 
modes of feeling and thinking of the husband and w r ife, the 
cause of which they themselves cannot explain. The menta, 
difference will be found to arise from different configurations 
and qualities of brain. Thus, if the husband be deficient in 
the organ of Conscientiousness, and the wife possess it in a 
high degree, she will be secretlv disgusted with the dishonesty 
13* 



150 OK TKJi EVILS THAT BEFALL MANKIND FROtf 

and inherent falsehood of his character, which she will have 
many opportunities of observing, even when they are un- 
known tc the world ; while, on the other hand, few condi- 
tions are more lamentable than that of an intellectual and 
well-educated man, iiretrievably doomed to the society of an 
ignorant, jealous, narrow-minded wife. The following pic- 
ture, in Orabbe's Tales of the Hall, is evidently drawn from 
nature : — 

Five years had passed, and what was Henry then ! 

The most repining of repenting men ; 

"With a fond, teasing, anxious wife, afraid 

Of all attention to another paid : 

Tet powerless she her husband to amuse, 

Lives but t' entreat, implore, resent, accuse : 

Jealous and tender, conscious of defects, 

She merits little, and yet much expects : 

She looks for love that now she cannot see, 

And sighs for joy that never more can be. 

On his retirements her complaints intrude, 

And fond reproof endears his solitude : 

While he her weakness (once her kindness) sees, 

And his affections in her languor freeze. 

Regret, unchecked by hope, devours his mind ; 

He feels unhappy, and he grows unkind. 

«« Fool, to be taken by a rosy cheek, 

And eyes that cease to sparkle or to speak ; 

Fool f for this child my freedom to resign, 

When one the glory of her sex was mine ; 

While from this burthen to my soul I hide, 

To think what Fate has dealt, and what denied. 

What fiend possessed me when I tamely gave 

My forced assent to be an idiot's slave ? 

Her beauty vanished, what for me remains ! 

Th' eternal clicking of the galling chains." 

"What," says Dr. Johnson, "can be expected but disap- 
pointment and repentance from a choice made in the imma- 
turity of youth, and in the ardor of desire, without judgment, 
without foresight, without inquiry after conformity of opinions, 
similarity of manners, iectitude of judgment, or purity of 
sentiment ? Such is the common process of marriage. A 
youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by 
artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and 
dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or 
diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are 
apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy toge- 
ther. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary 
blindness before had concealed ; they wear out life in alterca- 
tions, and charge nature with cruelty." — (Rasselas, ch. 29.) 

Until Phrenology was discovered, no natural index tc* 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 151 

mental qualities, that could be safely relied on, was possessed, 
and each individual, in directing his conduct, was left to the 
guidance of his own sagacity. But the natural law never 
bended one iota to accommodate itself to that state of igno- 
rance. Men suffered from unsuitable alliances; and they 
will continue to do so, until they shall avail themselves of th* 
means of judging afforded by Phrenology, and act in accord 
ance with its dictates. In the play of the Gamester, Mrs 
Beverly is represented as a most excellent wife, acting habitu- 
ally under the guidance of the moral sentiments and intellect, 
but married to a being who, while he adores her, reduces hei 
to beggary and misery. His sister utters an exclamation to 
this effect : — Why did just Heaven unite such an angel to so 
heartless a thing ! The parallel of this case occurs too often 
in real life ; only it is not "just Heaven" that makes such 
matches, but ignorant and thoughtless human beings, who 
imagine themselves absolved from all obligation to study and 
obey the laws of Heaven, as announced in the general arrange- 
ments of the universe. 

The justice and benevolence of rendering the individuals 
unhappy, who neglect this great institution of the Creator, 
will become more striking, when, in the next place, we con- 
sider the effects, by the organic law, of such conduct on the 
children of these ill-assorted unions. • 

Physiologists, in general, are agreed, that a vigorous and 
healthy constitution of body in the parents, communicates 
existence in the most perfect state to the offspring, and vict 
versa. The transmission of various diseases from parents to 
children is a matter of universal notoriety : thus consumption, 
gout, scrofula, hydrocephalus, rheumatism, and insanity, are 
well known as maladies which descend from generation to 
generation. Strictly speaking, it is not disease which is trans- 
mitted, but organs of such imperfect structure that they are 
unable to perform their functions properly, and so weak as to 
be easily put into a morbid condition by causes which sound 
organs are able to resist. Blindness is often, though not 
uniformly, a hereditary defect. There is a family in North 
America, some individuals of which have been affected with 
blindness for the last hundred years.* A medical friend 
writes : — •" I have known more than one instance of blind- 
ness descending in families ; and have also known instances 

•New York Medical Repository, vol. iii. No. I. 



152 ON THE ETILS THAT BEFALL MAKXIITD FROM 

where the parents were blind without the children laboring 
under this infliction." 

Form, size, and quality of the brain, like those- of other 
parts of the body, are transmissible from parents to children ; 
and hence dispositions and talents are transmissible also, as 
has been long remarked, not only by medical authors, but by 
attentive observers in general : — 

Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis ; 
Est in juvencis, est in equis patrum 
Virtus : nee imbellem feroees 
Progenerant aquilae columbam.* 

The following remarks, by Professor John Gregory, are 
extracted from his Comparative View of the State and Facul- 
ties of Man with those of the Animal World. " By a proper 
attention we can preserve and improve the breed of horses, 
dogs, cattle, and indeed of all other animals. Yet it is ama- 
zing this observation was never transferred to the human 
species, where it would be equally applicable. It is certain 
that, notwithstanding our promiscuous marriages, many fami- 
lies are distinguished by peculiar circumstances in their cha- 
racter. This family character, like a family face, will often 
be lost in one generation, and appear again in the succeeding. 
Without doubt, education, habit, and emulation, may con*- 
tribute greatly in many cases to keep it up ; but it will be 
generally found, that, independent of these, Nature has 
stamped an original impression on certain minds, which edu- 
cation may greatly alter or efface, but seldom so entirely as 
to prevent its traces being seen by an accurate observer. How 
a certain character or constitution of mind can be transmitted 
from a parent to a child, is a question of more difficulty than 
importance. It is indeed equally difficult to account for the 
external resemblance of features, or for bodily diseases being 
transmitted from a parent to a child. But we never dream 
of a difficulty in explaining any appearance of nature which 
is exhibited to us every day. A proper attention to this sub- 
ject would enable us to improve not only the constitutions but 
the characters of our posterity. Yet we every day see very 
sensible people, who are anxiously attentive to preserve or 
improve the breed of their horses, tainting the blood of their 
children, and entailing on them not only the most loathsome 

* The brave are born of the brave and good : in cattle and in horses 
the good qualities of the race are discernible, and it is never found 
that eagles give birth to doves — HoR. 1. ir od. 4, 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS. 153 

diseases of the body, but madness, folly, and the mowt un- 
worthy dispositions, and this too when they cannot plead 
oeing stimulated by necessity, or impelled by passion."* 

Dr. James Gregory also, in treating of the temperaments in^ 
his Conspectus Medicinx Tncoreticae, says, " Hujusmodi vari-^^ 
etates non corporis madd, veram et animi quoque, plerumque 
congenita?, nonnunquam hereditaria, observantur. Hoc modo 
parentes sa?pe in prole reviviscunt ; certe parentibus liberi 
similes sunt, non vultum modo et corporis formam, sed animi 
indolem, et virtutes, et vitia. Imperiosa gens Claudia diu 
Roma? floruit, impigra, ferox, superba ; eadem illachrymabilem 
Tiberium, tristissimum tyrannum, produxit; tandem in im- 
manem Caligulam, et Claudium, et Agrippinam, ipsumque 
demum Neronem, post sexcentos annos, desitura."t — Cap. L 
sect. 16. 

A celebrated French writer, who has written much sound 
as well as false philosophy, observes, that " physical organi- 
zation, of which moral is the offspring, transmits the same 
character, from father to son through a succession of ages. 
The Apii were always haughty and inflexible, the Catos 
always severe. The whole line of the Guises w r ere bold, rash, 
factious ; compounded of the most insolent pride and the 
most seductive politeness. From Francis de Guise to him 
who alone and in silence went and put himself at the head 
of the people of Naples, they were all, in figure, in courage, 
and in turn of mind, above ordinary men. I have seen 
whole-length portraits of Francis de Guise, of the Balafre, 
and of his son : they are all six feet high, with the same 
features, the same courage and boldness in the forehead, the 
eye, and the attitude. Th^s continuity, this series of beings 
alike, is still more observable in animals ; and if as much 
care were taken to perpetuate fine races of men, as some na- 
tions still take to prevent the mixing of the breeds of their 
Dorses and hounds, the geneology would be written in the 
countenance and displayed in the manners." J 

* Comparative View, &c, 3d. edit. Lond., 1776, pp. 18. 19. 

t " Peculiarities not of body merely, but also of the mind, are for 
the most part observed to be congenital, and not unfrequently heredi- 
tary. Parents often revive in their offspring, who resemble them not 
only in countenance and form of body, but in the dispositions of the 
mind, in virtues and in vices. The imperious Claudian family 
flourished in Rome, courageous, ferocious, ard proud : 't mod '.ed 
the pitiless tyrant Tiberias, and at length, in the mo^s.'rt v t v* la, 
Claudius, Agrippina, and finally Nero, became extinct.' 

X Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary, Art. Cato. 



154 HEREDITART TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

Dr. King, in speaking of the fatality which attended the 
House of Stuart, says, " If I were to ascribe their calamitie 
to another cause (than evil fate), or endeavor to account for 
them by any natural means, 1 should think they were chiefly 
owing to a certain obstinacy of temper, which appears to 
have been hereditary and inherent in all the Stuarts, except 
Charles II." 

It is well known that the caste of the Brahmins is the 
highest in point of intelligence as well as rank of all the 
castes in Hindostan ; and it is mentioned by the missionaries 
as an ascertained fact, that their children are naturally more 
acute, intelligent, and docile, than the children of the inferior 
castes, age and other circumstances being equal. 

Dr. John Mason Good observes, that " stupidity, like wit, is 
propagable ; and hence we frequently see it run from one 
generation to another, and not unfrequently it forms a dis- 
tinctive mark in the mental character of districts or nations — 
in many cases, indeed, where they border closely on each 
other."* 

The character of the mother seems to have the chief influ- 
ence in determining the qualities of the children, particularly 
where she has much force of character, and is superior in 
mental energy to her husband. There is perhaps no instance 
of a man of distinguished vigor and activity of mind whose 
mother did not display a considerable amount of the same 
qualities ; and the fact of eminent men having so frequency 
children far inferior to themselves, is, in most cases, explicable 
by the circumstance that men of talent often marry women 
whose minds are comparatively weak. When the mother's 
brain is very defective, the minds of the children are inevita- 
bly feeble. " We know," says Haller, " a very remarkable 
instance of two noble females, who got husbands on account 
of their wealth, although they were nearly idiots, and from 
whom this mental defect was extended for a century into 
several families, so that some of all their descendants still 
continue idiots in the fourth and even in the fifth generation."! 
In many families, the qualities of both father and mother are 
seen blended in the children. " In my own case," says a 
medical friend, " I can trace a very marked combination of 
the qualities of both parents. My father is a large-chested, 
strong, healthy man, with a large but not active brain ; — my 

* Study of Medicine, 2d edit. vol. iv. p. 187 
fElem. Phjeiol. lib. xxix. sect 2, $8. 



OHGAXIC LAWS. 155 

mother was a spare, thin woman, with a high nervous tempera- 
ment, a rather delicate frame, and a mind of uncomm'in ac- 
tivity. Her brain I should suppose to have been of moderate 
size. I often think that to the father I am indebted for a 
6trong frame and the enjoyment of excellent health, and to 
the mother for activity of mind and an excessive fondness 
for exertion. These things, and a hundred more, have been 
brought to my mind by the perusal of the Constitution of Man." 
Finally, it often happens that the mental peculiarities of the 
father are transmitted to some of the children, and those of 
the mother to others. 

Phrenology reveals the principle ^on which dispositions and 
talents are thus heieditary. Mental qualities are determined 
by the size, form, and constitution of the brain. The brain 
is a portion of our organized system, and, as such, is subject 
to the organic laws, by one of which, as already observed, itf 
form, size, and qualities, are transmitted by hereditary descent 
This law, however faint or obscure it may appear in indi- 
vidual cases, becomes absolutely undeniable in nations. When 
we place the collection of Hindoo, Carib, Esquimaux, Peru- 
vian, and Swiss skulls, possessed by the Phrenological So- 
ciety, in juxtaposition, we perceive a national form and 
combination of organs in each, actually obtruding itself upon 
our notice, and corresponding with the mental characters of 
the respective tribes ; the cerebral development of one tribe is 
seen to differ as widely from that of another, as the European 
mind does from that of the Carib. Here, then, each Hindoo, 
Esquimaux, Peruvian, and Carib, obviously inherits from his 
parents a certain general type of head ; and so does each 
European. And if the general forms and proportions are 
thus so palpably transmitted, can we doubt that the individual 
varieties follow the same rule, modified slightly by causes 
peculiar to the parents of the individual 1 The differences 
of national character are equally conspicuous as those of 
national brains, and it is surprising how permanently both 
endure. It is observed by an author cited in the Edinburgh 
Review, that " the Vincentine district is, as every one knows, 
and has been for ages, an integral part of the Venetian 
dominions, professing the same religion, and governed by the 
same laws, as the other continental provinces of Venice ; yel 
the English character is not more different from the French, 
than thai of the Vincentine from the Paduan ; while the con- 
trast between the Vincentine and his other neighbor, tha 



156 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

Veronese, is hardly less remarkable." — No. Ixxxiv. p. 459. 
See Appendix, No. V. 

A striking and undeniable proof of the effect on the cha- 
racter and dispositions of children, produced by the form of 
brain transmitted to them by hereditary descent, is to be 
found in the progeny of marriages between Europeans, whose 
brains possess a favorable development of the moral and 
intellectual organs, and Hindoos and native Americans, whose 
brains are inferior. All authors agree, and report the circum- 
stance as singularly striking, that the children of such unions 
are decidedly superior in mental qualities to the native, while 
they are still inferior to the European parent Captain Frank 
lin says, that the half-breed American Indians "are upon the 
whole a good looking people, and, where the experiments 
have been made, have shown much expertness in learning, 
and willingness to be taught ; they have however, been sadly 
neglected." — First Jourrcey, p. 86. 

He adds, " It has been remarked, I do not know with what 
truth, that half-breeds show more personal courage than the 
pure breeds." Captain Basil Hall, and other writers on South 
America, mention, that the offspring of aboriginal and Spanish 
parents constitute the most active, vigorous, and powerful por- 
tion of the inhabitants of these countries, and that many of 
them rose to high commands during the revolutionary war. 
So much is this the case in Hindostan, that several writers 
have already pointed to the mixed race there, as obviously 
destined to become the future sovereigns of India. These 
individuals inherit from the native parent a certain adaptation 
to the climate, and from the .European parent a higher develop- 
ment of brain; the two combined constituting their superiority. 

Another example of the same law occurs in Persia. It is 
said, that in that country the custom has existed for ages 
among the nobles, of purchasing beautiful female Circassian 
and Georgian captives, and forming alliances with them as 
wives. It is ascertained that the Circassian and Georgian 
r orm of brain stands comparatively high in the development 
of the moral and intellectual organs.* And it is mentioned 
oy some travellers, that the race of nobles in Persia is the 

* In Mr. W. Allen's picture of the Circassian Captives, the form 
•f the head is said to be a copy from nature, taken by that artist 
»hen he visited the country. It is engraved by Mr. James Stuatf 
with great beauty and fidelity, and may be consulted as an example 
of the superiority of Circassian development of the brain. 



ORGANIC LAWS. 167 

mast gifted in natural qualities, bodily and mental, of any 
class in that country ; a fact diametrically opposite to that 
which takes place in Spain, and other European countries, 
where the nobles intermarry constantly with each other, and 
set the organic laws altogether at defiance. It is a general 
rule, to which I shall afterwards more fully advert, that close 
affinity of parents produces a deteriorating influence on the 
children. The degeneracy and even idiocy of some of the 
noble and royal families of Spain and Portugal, from marrying 
nieces and other near relations, is well known ; and defective 
brains, in all these cases, may be observed. 

If, then, form, size, and constitution of brain, are transmit- 
ted from parents to children, and if these determine natural 
mental talents and dispositions, which in their turn exercise 
the greatest influence over the happiness of individuals 
through the whole of life, it becomes extremely important to 
discover according to what laws this transmission takes place. 
At the first aspect of the question, three principles present 
themselves to our consideration. Either in the first place, 
the constitution, size, and configuration of brain, which the 
parents themselves inherited at birth, are transmitted ab- 
solutely, so that the children, sex following sex, are exact 
copies, without variation or modification, of the one parent or 
the other; or, secondly, the natural and inherent qualities of 
the father and mother combine, and are transmitted in a 
modified form to the offspring ; or, thirdly, the qualities of 
the children are determined jointly by the constitution of the 
stock, and by the faculties which predominate in power and 
activity in the parents at the particular time when the organic 
existence of each child commences. 

Experience shows that the first cannot be the law; for, as 
often mentioned, a real law of nature admits of no exceptions; 
and it is well established, that the minds of children are not 
exact copies, without variation or modification, of those of the 
parents, sex following sex. Neither can the second be the law ; 
Decause it is equally certain that the minds of children, although 
sometimes, are not always, in talents and dispositions, exact 
blended reproductions of the father and mother. If this law 
prevailed, no child would be a copy of the father, none a copy 
of the mother or of any collateral relation ; but each would be 
nvarubly a compound of the two parents, and all the children 
would be exactly alike, sex alone excepted. Experience shows 
that this is not the law. What, then, does experience say to 
14 



»58 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

the third idea, that the mental character of each child is de- 
termined by the particular qualities of the stock, combined 
with those which predominate in the parents, when its exist- 
ence commenced] 

I have already adverted to the influence of the stock, and 
ehall now illustrate that of the condition of the parents, when 
existence is communicated. For this purpose we may con- 
sider, 1st, The transmission of factitious or temporary condi- 
tions of the body ; 2dly, The transmission of acquired habiis / 
3dly, The appearance of peculiarities in children, in conse- 
quence of impressions made on the mind of the mother; and, 
\thly, The transmission of temporary mental and bodily quali- 
ties." 

1. With respect to the first of these topics, Dr. Prichard, in 
his Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, states 
the result of his investigations to be, first, That the organiza- 
tion of the offspring is always modelled according to the type 
of the original structure of the parent; and, secondly, "That 
changes produced by external causes in the appearance or con- 
stitution of the individual are temporary ; and, in general, ac- 
quired characters are transient ; they terminate with the indi- 
vidual, and have no influence on the progeny. — Vol. ii, p. 
536. He supports the first of these propositions by a variety 
of facts occurring " in the porcupine family," " in the heredi- 
tary nature of complexion," and " in the growth of supernu- 
merary fingers or toes, and corresponding deficiencies." " Mau- 
pertuis has mentioned this phenomenon ; he assures us that 
there were two families in Germany, who have been distin- 
guished for several generations by six fingers on each hand, 
and the same number of toes on each foot," &c. Dr. Prichard 
admits, at the same time, that the second proposition is of more 
difficult proof, and that " an opinion contrary to it has been 
maintained by some writers, and a variety of singular facts 
have been related in support of it." But many of these rela- 
tions, as he justly observes, are obviously fables. The follow- 
ing facts, however, certainly militate against it 

A man's first child was of sound mind ; afterwards he had 
a fall from his horse, by which his head was much injured. 
His next two children proved to be both idiots. After this he 
was trepanned, and had other children, and they turned out 
to be of sound mind. This case was communicated to me by 
a medical practitioner of Douglas, in the Isle of Man. 

"Iil Europe," says a late writer, "the constant practice of 



ORGANIC LAWS. 139 

bilking cows has enlarged the udder greatly beyond its natu- 
ral size, and so changed the secretions that the supply does 
not cease when the calf is removed. In Colombia, where cir- 
cumstances are entirely different, nature shows a strong ten- 
dency to assume its original type ; a cow gives milk there only 
while the calf is with her."* 

2. There are some curious facts which seem to prove that 
acquired habits are hereditary, at least in the inferior animals. 
A strong illustration is quoted in the Edinburgh Review, No, 
Lxxxiv. p. 457. 

" Every one conversant with beasts," says the writer, 
u knows, that not only their natural, but many of their acquir- 
ed qualities, are transmitted by the parents to their offspring. 
Perhaps the most curious example of the latter fact may be 
found in the pointer. 

" This animal is endowed with the natural instinct of wind- 
ing game, and stealing upon his prey, which he surprises, 
having first made a short pause, in order to launch himself 
upon it with more security of success This sort of senacolon 
in his proceedings, man converts into a full stop, and teaches 
him to be as much pleased at seeing the bird or beast drop by 
the shooter's gun, as at taking it himself. The staunchest dog 
of this kind, and the original pointer, is of Spanish origin, and 
our own is derived from this race, crossed with that of the fox- 
hound, or other breed of dog, for the sake of improving his 
speed. This mixed and factitious race, of course, naturally 
partakes less of the true pointer character ; that is to say, is 
less disposed to stop, or at least he makes a shorter stop at 
game. The factitious pointer is, however, disciplined in this 
country, into staunchness ,• and, what is most singular, this 
quality is, in a great degree, inherited by his puppy, who 
may be seen earnestly standing at swallows or pigeons in a 
farm-yard. For intuition, though it leads the offspring to ex- 
ercise his parent's faculties, does not instruct him how to di- 
rect them. The preference of his master afterwards guides 
him in his selection, and teaches him what game is better 
worth pursuit. On the other hand, the pointer of pure Span- 
ish race, unless he happens to be well broke himself, which in 
the south of Europe seldom happens, produces a race which 
are all but unteachable, according to our present notions of a 
pointer's business. They will make a stop at their game, as 



• Encyclop. Brit., 7th edit. vol. ii. p. 653. Article America. 



(60 HERKDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

natural instinct prompts them, hut seem incapable of bem^ 
drilled into the habits of the animal which education has form- 
ed in this country, and has rendered, as I have said, in some 
degree capable of transmitting his acquirements to his descen- 
dants." 

" Acquired habits are hereditary in other animals beside* 
dogs. English sheep, probably from the greater richness of 
our pastures, feed very much together ; while Scotch sheep 
are obliged to extend and scatter themselves over theif hills, 
for the better discovery of food. Yet the English sheep, on 
being transferred to Scotland, keep their old habit of feeding 
in a mass, though so little adapted to their new country : so 
do their descendants ; and the English sheep is not thoroughly 
naturalized into the necessities of his place till the third gene- 
ration. The same thing may be observed as to the nature of 
his food that is observed in his mode of seeking it. When 
turnips were introduced from England into Scotland, it was 
only the third generation which heartily adopted this diet, the 
first having been starved into an acquiescence in it." 

The author of the Article America, in the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica (7th edit. vol. ii. p. 653) says, " It is worthy of no- 
tice, that the amble, the pace to which the domestic horse in 
Spanish America is exclusively trained, becomes in the course 
of some generations hereditary, and is assumed by the young 
ones without teaching." 

3. Impressions on the mind of the mother, especially those 
received through the senses, often produce a palpable effect on 
the offspring. On this subject Dr. Prichard observes, " The 
opinion which formerly prevailed, and which has been enter- 
tained by some modern writers, among whom is Dr. Darwin, 
that at the period when organization commences in the ovum, 
that is, at or soon after the time of conception, the structure 
of the foetus is capable of undergoing modification from im- 
pressions on the mind or senses of the parent, does not appear 
altogether so improbable. It is contradicted, at least, by no 
fact in physiology. It is an opinion of very ancient preva- 
lence, and maj' be traced to so remote a period, that its rise 
cannot be attributed to the speculations of philosophers, and 
it is difficult to account for the origin of such a persuasion, un- 
less we ascribe it to facts which happened to be observed."— 
P. 556. 

The following case fell under my own observation : — W. 
B., shoemaker in Portsburgh, called and skewed me his son, 



ORGANIC LAWS. 161 

aged 18, who is in a state of idiocy. He is simple and harm- 
less, but never could do any thing for himself. His father 
said that his "wife was in sound mind ; that he has other three 
children all sound ; and that the only account he could ever 
give of the condition of this son was, that he kept a public 
house; and some months before the birth of this boy, an idiot 
lad came round with a brewer's drayman, and helped him to 
lift the casks off the cart ; that that idiot made a strong- im- 
pression on his wife ; that she complained that she could not 
get his appearance removed from her mind, and that she kept 
out of the way when he came to the house afterwards ; and 
that his son was weak in body from birth, and silly in mind, 
and had the slouched and slovenly appearance of the idiot. 

" It is peculiarly lamentable to observe," says Dr. Mason 
Good, in reference to deafness and dumbness, " that when the 
defect has once made an entrance into a family, whether from 
the influence it produces on the nervous system of the mother, 
or from any other less obvious cause, it is peculiarly apt to be- 
come common to those children which are born afterwards ; 
insomuch that we often meet with a third, or a half, and in a 
few instances, where the first-born has been thus affected, with 
every individual of the progeny, suffering from the same dis- 
tressing evil. 'The late investigation in Ireland discovered 
families in which there were two, three, four, or more, thus 
circumstanced. In one family there were five children all deaf 
and dumb, in another seven, in another ten ; and in that of a 
poor militia officer on half-pay, there were nine born deaf and 
dumb in succession/ — {Quart. Jour, of Foreign Med., vol. L 
p. 321.) Yet it is consoling to reflect, that the instances are 
very rare indeed, in which the same defect has been propa- 
gated to a succeeding generation, when the deaf-dumb have 
married, and even when both the husband and wife have been 
thus afflicted.* 

The following additional facts are mentioned in the Athe- 
nasum: — "Many persons who have never known any, or per- 
haps more than one deaf and dumb individual in the imme- 
diate circle in which they lived, would be astonished to read 
the lists of applications circulated by the committee for the asy- 
lum in the Kent Road, so ably conducted by Mr. Watsorv 
which usually contain nearly a hundred names. The most 
remarkable fact, however, which these lists present, is the num* 

* Good's Study of Medicine, 2d edit. i. 506. 

11 14* 



162 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES, 

ber of deaf and dumb children frequently found in the same 
families, evidently in consequence of the continued operation 
of some unknown cause connected with the parents. Three, 
four, and five, deaf and dumb children are not uncommonly 
met with in one family, and in some instances they have been 
as many as seven. In the family of Martin, a laborer, out of 
ten children seven were deaf and dumb ; in the family of Kelly, 
a porter, seven out of eight were deaf and dumb ; and in the 
family of Aldum, a weaver, six out of twelve were deaf and 
dumb. The result of a table of twenty families, given in the 
' Historical Sketch of the Asylum/ published by Powell, Dow- 
gate-hill, is ninety deaf and dumb out of one hundred and 
fifty-nine children."* 

A medical friend says, " Several of the children of a clergy- 
man, in the west of Scotland, have been born blind. I know 
a family of six individuals — four girls and two boys. All the 
girls were born blind, while the boys see perfectly. Both pa- 
rents had good eyesight, so far as I can learn. These are 
curious facts, and not easily explained." Portal states, that 
"Morgagni has seen three sisters dumb ' d 'origine.' Other 
authors also cite examples, and I have seen like cases myself." 
In a note he adds, " I have seen three children out of four of 
the same family blind from birth by amaurosis, or gutta sere- 
?ia" — Portal Memoir es sur Plusieures Maladies, torn. iii. p. 
193. Paris, 1808. , 

Dr. Prichard, in his " Researches," already quoted, observes, 
" Children resemble, in feature and constitution, both parents, 
but, I think, more generally the father. In the breeding of 
norses and oxen, great importance is attached, by experienced 
propagators, to the male. In sheep, it is commonly observed 
that black rams beget black lambs. In the human species 
also, the complexion chiefly follows that of the father ; and I 
believe it to be a general fact, that the offspring of a black father 
and white mother is much darker than the progeny of a white 
father and a dark mother." — Vol. ii. p. 551.f These facts 
appear to me to be referable to both causes. The stock must 
have had some influence, but the mother, in all these cases, 
is not impressed by her own color, because she does not look 
on herself; while the father's complexion must strikingly at- 
tract her attention, and may, in this way, give the darker ting« 
to the offspring, t 

* Athenseum, 28th May 1825, p 493. 

t See Appendix, No. VI. 

I Black hens, however, lav dark colored eggi. 



ORGANIC LAWS. 163 

4. The idea of the transmission of temporary mental and 
bodily qualities, is supported by numerous facts tending to 
show that the state of the parents, particularly of the mother, 
at the time when the existence of the child commences, has a 
strong influence on its talents, dispositions, and health. 

The father of Napoleon Buonaparte, says Sir Walter Scott, 
* is stated to have possessed a very handsome person, a talen 
for eloquence, and a vivacity of intellect, which he transmitted 
to his son." " It was in the middle of civil discord, fights, 
and skirmishes, that Charles Buonaparte married Laetitia Ra- 
molina, one of the most beautiful young women of the island, 
and possessed of a great deal of firmness of character. She 
partook of the dangers of her husband during the years of civil 
war, and is said to have accompanied him on horseback on 
some military expeditions, or perhaps hasty flights, shortly be- 
fore her being delivered of the future emperor." — Life of Na- 
poleon Buonaparte, vol. iii. p. 6. 

The murder of David Rizzio was perpetrated by armed no- 
bles, with many circumstances of violence and terror, in the 
presence of Mary Queen of Scotland, shortly before the birth 
of her son, afterwards James the First of England. The con- 
stitutional liability of this monarch to emotions of fear, is re- 
corded as a characteristic of his mind ; and it has been men- 
tioned that he even started involuntarily at the sight of a drawn 
sword. Queen Mary was not deficient in courage, and the 
Stuarts, both before and after James the First, were distin- 
guished for this quality ; so that his dispositions were an ex- 
ception to the family character. Napoleon and James form 
striking contrasts ; and it may be remarked, that the mind of 
Napoleon's mother appears to have risen to the danger to 
which she was exposed, and braved it; while the circumstances 
in which Queen Mary was placed, were such as inspired her 
with fear. 

Esquirol, a celebrated French medical writer, in adverting 
to the causes of madness, mentions that many children, whose 
existence dated from periods when the horrors of the French 
Revolution were at their height, turned out subsequently to be 
weak, nervous, and irritable in mind, extremely susceptible of 
impressions, and liable to be thrown, by the least extraordi- 
nary excitement, into absolute insanity. 

A lady of considerable talent wrote as follows to a phreno- 
logical frier l \ : — " From the age of two I foresaw that my eU 
dest son's jBtlessness would ruin him ; and it has been even 



164 HEREDITARY TRJLXSMIISION OF Q.UALITIES. 

fo. Yet he was kind, brave, and affectionate. I read the 
Iliad for six months before he saw the light, and have often 
wondered if that couid have any influence on him. He was 
actually an Achilles."* 

The following particulars have been communicated to me 
by the medical friend already alluded to. " I know an old 
gentleman," says he, "who has been twice married. The 
children of his first marriage are strong, active, healthy people, 
and their children are the same. The produce of his second 
marriage are very inferior, especially in an intellectual point 
of view; and the younger the children are, the more is this 
obvious. The girls are superior to the boys, both physically 
and intellectually: indeed, their mother told me that she had 
great difficulty in rearing her sons, but none with her daughters* 
The gentleman himself, at the time of his second marriage, 
was upwards of sixty, and his wife about twenty-five. This 
shows very clearly that the boys have taken chiefly of the 
father, and the daughters of the mother." 

In a case which fell under my own observation, the father of 
a family became sick, had a partial recovery, but relapsed, 
declined in health, and in two months died. Seven months 
after his death, a son was born, of the full age, and the origin 
of whose existence was referable to the period of partial 
recovery. At that time, and during the subsequent two 
months, the faculties of the mother were highly excited, in 
ministering to her husband, to whom she was greatly attached ; 
and, after his death, the same excitement continued, as she 
was then loaded with the charge of a numerous family, but 
not depressed ; for her circumstances were comfortable. The 
son is now a young man ; and while his constitution is the 
most delicate, the development and activity of the mental 
organs are decidedly greater in him than in any other mem- 
ber of the family. 

A lady possessing a large brain and active temperament, 
was employed professionally as a teacher of music. Her 
husband also had a fine temperament, and a well-constituted 
brain, but his talents for music were only moderate. They 
had several children, all of whom were produced while the 
mother was in the full practice of her profession, and the 

♦This lrtdy's head is lafge; in particular, the organs of Combative 
ness, Self-Esteem, and Firmness, are very larg v those of Destiuo 
tiveness and Adhesiveness are large; and. the temperameat is verj 
active 



onniMC laws. 165 

whole now indicate sHperior musical abilities. They have 
learned to play on several instruments as if by instinct, and 
highly excel. In this case the original endowments of the 
mother, and her actual exercise of them, conspired to trans- 
mit them to her children. 

A friend told me that in his youth he lived in a county in 
which the gentlemen were much addicted to hard drinking ; 
and that he, too frequently, took a part in their revels. Seve- 
ral of his sons, born at that time, although subsequently edu- 
cated in a very different moral atmosphere, turned out strongly 
addicted to inebriety ; whereas the children born after he had 
removed to a large town and formed more correct habits, 
were not the victims of this propensity. Another individual, 
of superior talents, described to me the wild and mischievous 
revelry in which he indulged at the time of his marriage, and 
congratulated himself on his subsequent domestication and 
moral improvement. His eldest son, born in his riotous days, 
notwithstanding a strictly moral education, turned out a per- 
sonification of the father's actual condition at that time ; and 
his younger children were more moral in proportion as they 
were removed from the period of vicious frolics. The mother, 
in this case, possessed a favorable development of brain. 

The Margravine of Anspach observes, that " when a female 
is likely to become a mother, she ought to be doubly careful 
of her temper; and* in particular, to indulge no ideas that 
are not cheerful, and no sentiments that are not kind. Such 
is the connection between the mind and body, and the fea- 
tures of the face are moulded commonly into an expression 
of the internal disposition ; and is it not natural to think that 
an infant, before it is born, may be affected by the temper of 
its mother 1 — Memoirs, vol. ii. chap, viii.* 

When two parties marry very young, the eldest of their 
children generally inherits a less favorable development of the 
moral and intellectual organs, than those produced in more 
mature age. The animal organs in the human race are in 
general most vigorous in early life, and this energy appears to 
cause them to be then most readily transmitted to offspring 
Indeed, it is difficult to account for the wide varieties in the 
form of the brain in children of the same family, except on 
the principle, that the organs which predominate in vigor and 
activity in the parents, at the time when existence is com- 



*See Appendix, No. VII. 



166 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

mimicated, determine the tendency of corresponding organs 
to develope themselves largely in the children. The facts 
illustrative of the truth of this principle, which have been 
communicated to me and observed by myself, are so nume- 
rous, that I now regard it as extremely probable. 

If this be really the law of nature — as there is so grea 
reason for believing it is — then parents, in whom Combative 
ness and Destructiveness are habitually active, will transmi 
these organs, in a state of high development and excitemen 
to their children ; while parents in whom the moral and intel 
lectual organs exist in supreme vigor, will transmit these in 
greatest perfection. 

This view is in harmony with the fact, that children gene- 
rally, although not universally, resemble their parents in their 
mental qualities ; because, the largest organs being naturally 
the most active, the general and habitual state of the parents 
will be determined by those which predominate in size in 
their own brains ; and, on the principle that predominance in 
activity and energy causes the transmission of similar quali- 
ties to the offspring, the children will in this way very gene- 
rally resemble the parents. But they will not always do so; 
because even very inferior characters, in whom the moral and 
intellectual organs are deficient, may be occasionally exposed 
to external influences which, for the time, may excite these 
organs to unwonted vivacity ; and, according to the rule now 
explained, a child dating its existence from that period may 
inherit a brain supeiior to that of the parent. On the other 
hand, a person with an excellent moral development, may, by 
some particular occurrence, have his animal propensities 
roused to unwonted vigor, and his moral sentiments thrown 
for a time into the shade ; and any offspring connected with 
this condition, would prove inferor to himself in the develop- 
ment of the moral organs, and greatly surpass him in the size 
of those of the propensities. 

I repeat, that I do not present these views as ascertained 
phrenological science,' but as inferences strongly supported by 
facts, and consistent with known phenomena. If we suppose 
them to be true, they will greatly strengthen the motives for 
preserving the habitual supremacy of the moral sentiments 
and intellect • ?ince by our doing so, improved moral and 
intellectual capacities may be conferred on offspring. If it 
be true that this lower world is arranged in harmony with 
the supremacy of the higher faculties, what a noble prospect 



OHGA^rC LAWS. 107 

would this law open up, of the possibility of man ultimately 
Becoming capable of placing himself more fully in accordance 
with the Divine institutions than he has hitherto been able 
to d>, and, in consequence, of reaping numberless enjoyments 
that appear destined for him by his Creator, and avoiding 
thousands of miseries that now render life too often only a 
series of calamities ! The views here expounded also harmo- 
nize with the principle maintained in a former part of this 
work. That, as activity in the faculties is the fountain of 
enjoyment, the whole constitution of nature is designedly 
framed to support them in ceaseless action. What scope for 
observation, reflection, exercise of the moral sentiments, and 
the regulation of animal impulse, does not this picture of na- 
ture present ! 

I cordially agree, however, with Dr. Prichard, that this 
subject is still involved in great obscurity. " We know not," 
says he, " by what means any of the facts we remark are 
effected ; and the utmost we can hope to attain is, by tracing 
the connexion of circumstances, to learn from what combina- 
tions of them we may expect to witness particular results." — 
Vol. ii. p. 542. But much of this darkness may be traced to 
ignorance of the functions of the brain. If we consider that, 
in relation to mind, the brain has always been the most im- 
portant organ of our system ; that the mental condition of 
their parents must almost necessarily have exercised a power- 
ful influence over the development of the cerebral organs in 
their children , that the relative size of the organs determines 
the predominance of particular talents and dispositions ; but 
that, nevertheless, all past observations have been conducted 
without the knowledge of these facts; it will not appear 
marvellous, that hitherto much confusion and contradiction 
have existed in the cases recorded, and in the inferences 
drawn from them on this subject At the present moment, 
almost all that phrenologists can pretend to accomplish is, to 
point out the mighty void ; to offer an exposition of its causes, 
and to state such conclusions as their own very limited obser- 
vations have hitherto enabled them to deduce. Far from 
pretending to be in possession of certain and complete know- 
ledge on this topic, I am inclined to think, that, although 
fvery conjecture now hazarded were founded in nature, cen- 
turies of observation might probably be necessary to render 
the principles fully practical. At present we have almost no 
information concerning the effects, on the children, of diflfer- 



168 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

ent temperaments, different combinations in the cerebral 
organs, and differences of age, in the parents. 

It is astonishing, however, to what extent mere pecuniary 
interests excite men to investigate and observe the Natural 
Laws, while moral and rational considerations appear to exert 
so small an influence in leading them to do so. Before a 
common insurance company will undertake the risk of paying 
£100 on the death of an individual, they require the fol- 
lowing questions to be answered by credible and intelligent 
witnesses : — 

" 1. How long have you known Mr. A. B.? 

"2. Has he had the gout? 

" 3. Has he had a spitting of blood, asthma, consumption, 
or other pulmonary complaint? 

" 5. Do you consider him at all predisposed to any of these 
complaints ? 

" 5. Has he been afflicted with fits, or mental derange- 
ment ? 

"6. Do you think his constitution perfectly good, in the 
common acceptation of the term ? 

" 7. Aire his habits in every respect strictly regular and 
temperate ? 

"8. Is he at present in good health ? 

"9. Is there any thing in his form, habits of living, or 
business, which you are of opinion may shorten his life ? 

" 10. What complaints are his family most subject to? 

"11. Are you aware of any reason why an insurance 
might not with safety be effected on his life ?" 

A man and woman about to marry, have, in the generality 
of cases, the health and happiness of five or more human 
beings depending on their attention to considerations essen- 
tially the same as the foregoing, and yet how much less scru- 
pulous are they than the mere speculators in money ! " Be- 
fore the parties," says Dr. Caldwell, " form a compact fraught 
with consequences so infinitely weighty, let the constitution 
and education of both be matured. They will then not only 
transmit to their offspring a better organization, but be them- 
selves, from the knowledge and experience they have attained, 
better prepared to improve it by cultivation. For I shall erv 
deavor to make it appear that cultivation can improve it 
When a skilful agriculturist wishes to amend his breed of 
cattle, he does not employ, for that purpose, immature ani- 
Dials. On the contrary, he carefully prevents their in*^ 



ORGANIC LAWS. 169 

course. Experience moreover teaches him not lo expec fhiit 
of the hest quality from immature fruit-trees or vines. Th« 
product of such crudeness is always defective. In like man- 
ner, marriages between boarding-school girls and striplings in 
or just out of college, ought to be prohibited. In such cases, 
prohibition is a duty, no less to the parties themselves, than 
to their offspring and society. Marriages of the kind are 
rarely productive of any thing desirable. Mischief and un- 
happiness of some sort are their natural fruit. Patriotism, 
therefore, philanthropy, and every feeling of kindness to 
human nature, call for their prevention. Objections resting 
on ground not altogether dissimilar may be justly urged 
against young women marrying men far advanced in years. 
Old men should in no case contract marriages likely to prove 
fruitful. Age has impaired their constitutional qualities, 
which descending to their offspring, the practice tends to de- 
teriorate our race. It is rare for the descendants of men far 
advanced in years to be distinguished for high qualities of 
either body or mind. 

" As respects persons seriously deformed, or in any way 
constitutionally enfeebled — the rickety and club-footed, for 
instance, and those with distorted spines, or who are predis- 
posed to insanity, scrofula, pulmonary consumption, gout, or 
epilepsy — all persons of this description should conscien- 
tiously abstain from matrimony. In a special manner, where 
both the male and female labor under a hereditary taint, they 
should make it a part of their duty to God and their posterity 
never to be thus united. Marriage in such individuals can- 
not be defended on moral ground, much less on that of public 
usefulness. It is selfish to an extent but little short of crime. 
Its abandonment or prevention would tend, in a high degree, 
to the improvement of mankind."* 

I am indebted for the following particulars to the medical 
gentleman already repeatedly quoted, who was induced to 
communicate them by a perusal of the second edition of the 
present treatise : — " If your work has no other effect than 
that of turning attention to the laws which regulate marriage 
and propagation, it will have done a vast service, for on no 
point are such grievous errors committed. I often see in my 

* Thoughts on the True Mode of Improving the Condition of Man 
By Charles Caldwell, M. D. Lexington, Kentucky, 1833, p. 20 Th* 
greater part of this eloquent and powerful Essay is reprinted in th« 
Phrenological Journal, vol. viii, No. 40. 
15 



170 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF Q.UALITIE8. 

own practice the most lamentable consequences resulting 
from neglect of these laws. There are certain families which 
1 attend, where the constitutions of both parents are bad, and 
where, when any thing happens to the children, it is almost 
impossible to cure them. An inflamed gland, a common 
cold, hangs about them for months, and almost defies removal. 
In other families, where the parents are strong and healthy 
the children are easily cured of almost any complaint. / 
know a gentleman aged about 50, the only survivor of a 
family of six sons and three daughters, all of whom, with the 
exception of himself, died young of pulmonary consumption- 
He is a little man with a narrow chest, and married a lady of 
a delicate constitution and bad lungs. She is a tall spare 
woman, with a chest still more deficient than his own. They 
have had a large family, all of whom die off regularly as 
they reach manhood and womanhood, in consequence of 
affections of the lungs. In the year 1833, two sons and a 
daughter died within a period of ten months. Two still sur- 
vive, but they are both delicate, and there can be no doubt 
that when they arrive at maturity they will follow the rest. 
This is a most striking instance of punishment under the 
organic laws." 

It is pleasing to observe, that, in Wurtemberg, there are two 
excellent laws calculated to improve the moral and physical 
condition of the people, which other states would do well to 
adopt. " First, " It is illegal for any young man to marry 
before he is twenty -five, or any young woman before she is 
eighteen ; and a young man, at whatever age he wishes to 
marry, must show to the police and the priest of the com- 
mune where he resides, that he is able, and has the prospect, 
to provide for a wife and family." The second law compels 
parents to send their children to school, from the age of six to 
fourteen.* 

There is no moral difficulty in admitting and admiring the 
wisdom and benevolence of the institution by which good 
qualities are transmitted from parents to children : but it is fre- 
quently held as unjust to the latter, that they should inherit 
parental deficiencies, and so be made to suffer for the sins 
which they did not commit. In treating of this difficulty, I 
must again refer to the supremacy of the moral sentiments, 
as the theory of the constitution of the world. The animal 
propensities are all selfish, and regard only the immediate 
* See Appendix, No. Vlli. 



ORGANIC LAVt 9 



171 



and apparent interest of the individual ; while the higher 
sentiments delight in that which communicates the greatest 
quantity of enjoyment to the greatest number. Now, let us, 
in the first place, suppose the law of hereditary descent to be 
abrogated altogether — that is to say, the natural qualities oi 
each individual of the race to be conferred at birth, without the 
slightest reference to what his parents had been or done y — 
this form of constitution would obviously have cut off every 
possibility of improvement in the race, by any means within 
the control of man. Every phrenologist knows that the brains 
of the New Hollanders, Caribs, and other savage tribes, are 
distinguished by great deficiencies in the moral and intellectual 
organs.* If, however, carib. 

it be true that a con- 
siderable development 
of the intellectual and 
moral organs is indis- 
pensable to the compre- 
hension of science and 
the practice of virtue, 
it would, on the pre- 
sent supposition, be 
impossible to raise the ; 
New Hollanders, as a 
people, one step higher in capacity for intelligence and virtue 
than they now are. We might cultivate each generation up 
to the limits of its powers, but there the improvement, and a 
low one it would be, would stop ; for, the next generation be- 
ing produced with brains equally deficient in the moral and 
intellectual regions, no principle of increasing amelioration 
could exist. The same remarks are applicable to every tribe 
of mankind. If we assume modern Europeans as a standard 
— then, if the law of hereditary descent were abrogated, every 
deficiency which at this moment is attributable to imperfect 
or disproportionate development of brain, would be irremedia- 
nle by human means, and continue as long as the race exists 
ed. Each generation might be cultivated till the summit level 
of its capacities were attained, but higher than this no succeed- 
ing generation could rise. When we contrast with such a 
prospect the very opposite effects flowing from the law of he- 
reditary transmission of qualities in an increasing ratio, the 

* Thig fact ia demonstrated bjr specimens in most Phrenological 
Collections. 




173 HEREDITARY '1RAXS3CISSI0X OP QUALITIES. 

whole advantages are at once perceived to be on the side of 
the latter arrangement. According to this rule, the children 
of the individuals who have obeyed the organic, the moral, 
and the intellectual laws, will not only start from the highest 
level of their parents in acquired knowledge, but will inherit 
an enlarged development of the moral and intellectual organs, 
and thereby enjoy an increasing capability of discovering and 
obeying the institutions of the Creator. 

It appears to me that the native American savages, and na 
tive New Hollanders, cannot, with their present brains, adopt 
Christianity or civilization. Mr. Timothy Flint, a Presbyte- 
rian clergyman, who passed ten years, commencing in 1815, 
in wanderings and preachings in the valley of the Mississippi, 
says of the Indians among whom he lived, "that they have 
not the same acute and tender sensibilities with the other races 
of men. They seem callous to every passion but rage." .... 
" Their impassible fortitude and endurance of suffering, which 
have been so much vaunted, are, after all, in my mind, the 
result of a greater degree of physical insensibility." " No or- 
dinary stimulus excites them to action. None of the common 
excitements, endearments, or motives, operate upon them at 
all. They seem to hold most of the things that move us in 
proud disdain. The horrors of their warfare — the infernal 
rage of their battles — the demoniac fury of gratified revenge — 
the alternations of hope and despair in their gambling, to which 
they are addicted far beyond the whites — the brutal exhilara- 
tion of drunkenness — these are their excitements." He con- 
cludes, " It strikes me that Christianity is the religion of civi- 
lized man, that the savages must first be civilized; and that, 
as there is little hope that the present generation of Indians 
can be civilized, there is but little more that they will be Chris- 
tianized." 

The reader will find, in the phrenological collections, speci- 
mens of the skulls of these savages ; and on comparing them 
with those of Europeans, he will observe that, in the American 
Indians, the organs of reflecting intellect, and of all the moral 
feelings, are greatly inferior in size to the same organs in the 
Europeans. The moral and intellectual organs are decidedly 
larger in the Sandwich Islanders than in these Indians, and 
they have received European civilization with greater cordi- 
ality and success. If, by conforming to the organic laws, the 
moral and intellectual organs of the American savages could 
be considerably enlarged, they would desire civilization, and 



ORGANIC LAWS. 173 

wonld adopt it when offered. If this view be well founded, 
every method used for* their cultivation, which is not calcula- 
ted at the same time to improve their cerebral organization, 
will be limited in its effects by the na'rrow capacities attending 
their present development In youth, all the organs of the 
body are more susceptible of modification than in advanced 
age ; and hence the effects of education on the young may 
*rise from the greater susceptibility of the brain to changes at 
hat period than in later life. This improvement will, no 
"oubt, have its limits ; but it may probably extend to that point 
at which man will be capable of placing himself in harmony 
with the natural laws. The effort necessary to maintain him- 
self there, will still provide for the activity of his faculties, 

2dly, We may suppose the law of hereditary descent to be 
limited to the transmission of good, and abrogated as to the 
transmission of bad qualities ; and it may be thought that such 
an arrangement would be more benevolent and just. There 
are objections to this view, however, which do not occur with- 
out reflection to the mind. We see as matter of fact, that a 
vicious and debased parent is actually defective in the moral 
and intellectual organs. Now, if his children should take up 
exactly the same development as himself, this would be the 
transmission of imperfections, which is the very thing objected 
to ; while, if they were to take up a development fixed by na- 
ture, and not at all referable to that of the parent, this would 
render the whole race stationary in their first condition, with- 
out the possibility of improvement in their capacities — which 
also, we have seen, would be an evil greatly to be deprecated. 
But, 

Zdly, The bad development might be supposed to transmit, 
by hereditary descent, a good development This, however, 
would set at nought the supremacy of justice and benevolence; 
it would render the consequences of contempt for and violation 
of the divine laws, and of obedience to them, in this particular, 
precisely alike. The debauchee, the cheat, the murderer, and 
the robber, would, according to this view, be able to look upon 
the prospects of his posterity with the same confidence in their 
welfare and happiness, as the pious intelligent Christian, who 
had sought to know God and to obey his institutions during 
nis whole life. Certainly no individual in whom the higher 
sentiments prevail, will for a moment regard this imagined 
cnange as any improvement on the Creator's arrangements- 
What a host of motives to moral and religious conduct would 
15* 



74 HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF aUAIITIES. 

at once be withdrawn, were such a spectacle of divine govern 
ment exhibited to the world ! 

4=thly, It may be supposed that human happiness would 
have been more completely secured, by endowing all indivi- 
duals at birth with that degree of development of the moral 
and intellectual organs which would have bes* fitted them for 
discovering and obeying the Creator's laws, and by preventing 
all aberrations from this standard : just as the lower animals 
appear to have received instincts and capacities adjusted with 
the most perfect wisdom to their conditions. Two remarks 
occur on this supposition. First, We are not competent at 
present to judge correctly hew far the development actually 
bestowed on the human race is, or is not, wisely adapted to 
their circumstances ; for possibly there may be, in the great 
system of human society, departments exactly suited to all 
existing forms of brain not imperfect through disease, but 
which our knowledge is insufficient to discover. The want 
of a natural index to the mental dispositions and capacities of 
individuals, and of a true theory of the constitution of society, 
may have hitherto precluded philosophers from arriving at 
sound conclusions on this question. It appears to me proba- 
ble, that while there may be great room for improvement in 
the talents and dispositions of vast numbers of individuals, the 
imperfections of the race in general may not be so great as we, 
in our present state of ignorance of the aptitudes of particular 
persons for particular situations, are prone to infer. But, 
secondly, On the principle that activity of the faculties is the 
fountain of enjoyment, it may be questioned whether addi- 
tional motives to the exercise of the moral and intellectual 
powers, and consequently greater happiness, are not conferred 
by leaving men (within certain limits) to regulate the talents 
and tendencies of their descendants, than by endowing each 
individual with the best qualities, independently of the con- 
duct of his parents. 

On the whole, therefore, there seems reason for concluding, 
that the actual institution, by which both good and bad qualities* 

* In using the popular expressions "good qualities" and "bad 
qualities," I do not mean to insinuate that any of the tendencies be 
stowed on man are essentially bad in themselves. Destructivenesa 
and Acquisitiveness, for example, are in themselves essential to hu- 
man welfare in this world, and when properly directed, produce effects 
unquestionably good; but they become the sources of evil when they 
are ill directed, which may happen either from moral deficiency, from 
Intellectual ignorance, or from their organs being too large in propor- 
tion \o those of the superior sentiments and intellect." 



ORGANIC LAWS. 175 

lie transmitted, is fraught with higher advantages to the 
race, than the abrogation of the law of transmission altogether, 
or than the supposed change of it, by which bad men would 
transmit good qualities to their children. The actual law, 
when viewed by the moral sentiments and intellect, appears, 
both in its principles and in its consequences, beneficial and 
expedient, When an individual sufferer, therefore, complains 
of its operation, he regards it through the animal faculties 
alone ; his self-love is annoyed, and he carries his thoughts no 
farther. He never stretches his mind forward to the conse- 
quences which would ensue to mankind at large, if the law 
which grieves him were reversed. The animal faculties re- 
gard nothing beyond their own immediate and apparent inter- 
est, and they do not even discern it correctly; for no arrange- 
ment that is beneficial for the race would be found injurious 
to individuals, if its operations in regard to them were distinct- 
ly traced. The abrogation of the rule, therefore, under which 
they complain, would, we may be certain, bring ten thousand 
times greater evils, even upon themselves, than its continu- 
ance. 

On the other hand, an individual sufferer under hereditary 
pain, in whom the moral and intellectual faculties predomi- 
nate, and who should see the principle and consequences of 
the institution of hereditary descent as now explained, would 
not murmur at them as unjust: he would bow with submission 
to an institution which he perceived to be fraught with bless- 
ings to the race when it was known and observed ; and the 
very practice of this reverential acquiescence would be so de- 
lightful, that it would diminish, in a great degree, the severity 
of his misfortune. Besides, he would see the door of mercy 
standing widely open, and inviting his return ; he would per- 
ceive that every step which he made in his own person to- 
wards exact obedience to the Creator's laws, would remove 
by so much the organic penalty transmitted on account of his 
parent's transgressions, and that his posterity would reap the 
full benefits of his more dutifui*observance. 

It may be objected to the law of hereditary transmission of 
organic qualities, that the children of a blind and lame father 
have sound eyes and limbs. But, in the first place, these de» 
fects are generali^the result of accident or disease, occurring 
either during pregnancy or posterior to birth, and are seldom 
or never the operation of nature ; and, consequently, the origi- 
nal physical principles remaining entire in thy constitution. 



IT8 NEGLECT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 

the bodily imperfections are not transmitted to the progeny 
Secondly, Where the defects are congenital or constitutional, 
it frequently happens that they are transmitted through suc- 
cessive generations. This is sometimes exemplified in blind- 
ness, and even in the possession of supernumerary fingers or 
toes. The reason why such peculiarities are not transmitted 
to all the progeny, appears to be simply that, in general, only 
one parent is defective. If the father, for instance, be blind 01 
deaf, the mother is generally free from that imperfection, and 
her influence naturally extends to, and modifies the result in, 
the progeny. 

If the mental qualities transmitted to offspring be, as above 
explained, dependent on the organs most highly excited in the 
parents, this will account for the varieties, along with the gene- 
ral resemblance, that occur in children of the same marriage. 
It will account also for the circumstance of genius being some- 
times transmitted and sometimes not. Unless both parents 
possessed the cerebral development and temperament of genius, 
the law would not certainly transmit these qualities to the 
children ; and even although both did possess these endow- 
ments, they would be transmitted only on condition of the pa- 
rents obeying the organic laws — one of which forbids that ex- 
cessive exertion of the mental and corporeal functions which 
exhausts and debilitates the system ; an error almost univer- 
sally committed by persons endowed with high original talent, 
under the present condition of ignorance of the natural laws, 
and erroneous fashions and institutions of society. The sup- 
posed law would be disproved by cases of weak, imbecile, and 
vicious children, being born to parents whose own constitution 
and habits had been in the highest accordance with the orga- 
nic, moral, and intellectual laws ; but no such cases have hi* 
therto come under my observation. 

As rules are best taught by examples, I shall now mention 
some facts that have fallen under my own notice, or been 
communicated to nae from authentic sources, illustrative of tht 
practical consequences of infringing the law of hereditary de- 
scent. 

A man, aged about 50, possessed a brain in which the ant 
mal, moral, and knowing intellectual organs, were all large, 
but the reflecting small. He was pious, but destitute of edu* 
cation; he married an unhealthy young wofnan, deficient in 
moral development, but of considerable force of character; and 
several children were born. The father and mother were far 



NEGLECT OF THK ORGANIC LAWS IN MARRIAGE. 177 

« 

from being happy ; and when the children attained to eigh- 
teen or twenty years of age, they were adepts in every species 
of immorality and profligacy: they picked their father's pocket, 
stole his goods, and got them sold back to him, by accompli- 
ces, for money, which was spent in betting, cock-fighting, 
drinking, and low debauchery. The father was heavily 
grieved ; but knowing only two resources, he beat the children 
severely as long as he was able, and prayed for them : his own 
words were, that " if, after that, it pleased the Lord to make 
vessels of wrath of them, the Lord's will must just be done." 
I mention this last observation, not in jest, but in great seri- 
ousness. It was impossible not to pity the unhappy father ; 
yet, who that sees the institutions of the Creator to be in 
themselves wise, but in this instance to have been directly vio- 
lated, will not acknowledge that the bitter pangs of the poor 
old man were the consequences of his own ignorance ; and 
that it was an erroneous view of the divine administration 
which led him to overlook his own mistakes, and to attribute 
to the Almighty the purpose of making vessels of wrath of his 
children, as the qnly explanation which he could give of their 
wicked dispositions ] Who that sees the cause of his misery 
can fail to lament that his piety was not enlightened by phi- 
losophy, and directed to obedience, in the first instance, to the 
organic laws of the Creator, as one of the prescribed conditions 
without observance of which he had no title to expect a bless- 
ing upon his offspring? 

In another instance, a man, in whom the animal organs, 
particularly those of Combativeness and Destructiveness, were 
very large, but who had a pretty fair moral and intellectual 
development, married, against her inclination, a young woman, 
fashionably and showily educated, but with a very decided de- 
ficiency of Conscientiousness. They soon became unhappy, 
and even blows were said to have passed between them, al- 
though they belonged to the middle rank of life. The mother 
employed the children to deceive and plunder the father, and 
latterly spent the pilfered sums in purchasing ardent spirits 
The sons inherited the deficient morality of the mother, and 
the ill temper of the father. The family fireside became a thea- 
tre of war, and, before the sons attained majority, the father 
was glad to get them removed from his house, as the only 
means by which he could feel even his life in safety from their 
violence ; for they had by that time retaliated the blows with 
*"hich he had visited them in their younger years; and he stated 
12 



178 NEGLECT OF THE ORGANIC LAWS IN JIAKEIAGE. 

that he actually considered his life to be in danger from hit 
own offspring. 

In another family, the mother possesses an excellent devel- 
opment of the moral and intellectual organs, while in the fa- 
ther the animal organs predominate in great excess. She has 
been the unhappy victim of ceaseless misfortune, originating 
from the misconduct of her husband. Some of the children 
have inherited the father's brain, and some the mother's; and 
of the sons whose heads resembled that of the father, several 
have died through mere debauchery and profligacy under thirty 
years of age ; whereas those who resemble the mother are 
alive, and little contaminated even amidst all the disadvantages 
of evil example. 

On the other hand, I am not acquainted with a single in- 
stance in which the moral and intellectual organs predomina- 
ted in both father and mother, and where external circum- 
stances permitted their general activity, in which the whole 
children did not partake of a moral and intellectual character, 
differing slightly in degrees of excellence one from another, 
but all presenting the decided predominancy of the human 
over the animal faculties. 

There are well-known examples of the children of religious 
and moral fathers exhibiting dispositions of a very inferior de- 
scription ; but in all the instances of this sort that I have been 
able to observe, there has been in one parent a large develop- 
ment of the animal organs, which was controlled, but not 
much more, by the moral and intellectual powers; while, in 
the other parent, the moral organs did not appear to be in 
large proportion. The unfortunate child inherited the large 
animal development of the one, with the defective moral de- 
velopment of the other; and, in this way, was inferior to both. 
The way to satisfy one's self on this point, is to examine the 
heads of the parents. In all such cases, a large base of the 
brain, which is the region of the animal propensities, will very 
probably be found in one or other of them. 

Another organic law of the animal kingdom deserves atten- 
tion, viz. that by which marriages between blood relations 
tend decidedly to the deterioration of the physical and mental 
qualities of the offspring. In Spain, kings marry their nieces, 
and in this country first and second cousins marry without 
scruple ; although every philosophical physiologist will declare 
that this is in direct opposition to the institutions of nature 
The 42d Number of the Phrenological Journal contains 



OROAXIC LA.W1. 



17t 




til account of an idiot in 
Manchester, whose parents 
we cousins, and one of 
whose sisters is also idiotic. 
His head is extremely small, 
particularly in the upper ^^ 
part of the forehead. A 
representation of it is an- 
nexed. 

This law holds also in 
the vegetable kingdom. "A 
provision of a very simple 
kind, is, in some cases, 
made to prevent the male 
and female blossoms of the same plant from breeding toge- 
ther, this being found to hurt the breed of vegetables, just as 
breeding in and in does the breed of animals. It is contrived 
that the dust shall be shed by the male blossom before the 
female is ready to be affected by it, so that the impregnation 
must be performed by the dust of some other plant, and in 
this way the breed be crossed." — -Objects, <$rc. of Science, p. 
33. On a similar principle, it is found highly advantageous 
in agriculture not to sow grain of the same stock in constant 
succession on the same soil. 

In individual instances, if the soil and plants are both pos- 
sessed of great vigor and the highest qualities, the same kind 
of grain may be reaped in succession twice or thrice, with 
less perceptible deterioration than where these elements of 
reproduction are feeble and imperfect; and the same fact 
occurs in the animal kingdom. If the first individuals con- 
nected in near relationship, who unite in marriage, are un- 
commonly robust, and possess very favorably developed brains, 
their offspring may not be so much deteriorated below tho 
common standard of the country as to attract particular 
attention, and the law of nature is, in this instance, supposed 
not to hold ; but it does hold, for to a law of nature there 
never is an exception. The offspring are uniformly inferior 
to what they would have been, if the parents had united with 
strangers in blood of equal vigor and cerebral development 
Whenever there is any remarkable deficiency in parents who 
are related in blood, these appear in the most marked and 
aggravated forms in the offspring. This fact is so well known, 



ISO CHOICE OF SERVANTS. 

and so easily ascertained, that I forbear to enlarge upon it 
So much for miseries arising from neglect of the organic laws 
in forming the domestic compact. 

I proceed to advert to those evils which arise from ovei^ 
looking the operation of the same laws in the ordinary rela- 
xations of society. 

How many little annoyances arise from the misconduct of 
servants and dependents in various departments of life ! how 
many losses, and sometimes ruin, arise from dishonesty and 
knavery in confidential clerks, partners, and agents! A 
mercantile house of great reputation, in London, was ruined 
and became bankrupt, by a clerk having embezzled a prodi- 
gious extent of funds, and absconded to America ; another 
company in Edinburgh sustained a great loss by a similar 
piece of dishonesty ; a company in Paisely was ruined by 
one of the partners having collected the funds, and eloped 
with them to the United States ; and seveial bankers, and 
other persons, suffered severely in Edinburgh, by the conduct 
of an individual some time connected with the public press* 
It is said that depredations are constantly committed in the 
post-offices of the United Kingdom, in spite of every effort 
made to select persons of the best character, and of the 
strictest vigilance exercised over their conduct. If it be true 
that the talents and dispositions of individuals are indicated 
and influenced by the development of their brains, and that 
their actual conduct is the result of this development and of 
their external circumstances, including in the latter every 
moral and intellectual influence coming from without, it is 
obvious that one and all of the evils here enumerated might, 
to a great extent, be obviated by the application of Phre- 
nology. These misfortunes can be traced to the error of 
having placed human beings, decidedly deficient in moral or 
intellectual qualities, in situations which demand these in a 
higher degree than they possessed them; and any certain 
means by which the presence or absence of these qualities 
could be predicated before their appointment, would go far to 
prevent the occurrence of the evils. The two following 
figures, for example, represent several of the organs most im- 
portant in practical conduct in opposite states of development, 
and the dispositions of the individuals exactly correspond 
with them. 



ORGANIC J.AW3. 



Ill 




full. 



Mrs. H. was a lady remark- 
able for Conscientiousness, 
but unsteady of purpose. It 
was necessary for her to have 
a friend, whose advice she , 
constantly asked and followed, 
in order to preserve herself 
from yielding to every inter- 
nal impulse or outward solici- 
tation. 

David Haggart was a dex- 
terous and enterprising thief 
and pickpocket, who was ex- 
ecuted at last for murdering^ 
.... r t\ £lz -*.u * 5 « Firmness small; 16. CoDRrKm- 

tne jailor oi Dumfries, with a tiousness large ; 13. Cautiousness 
view to escape from justice. 

If individuals having brains 
resembling that of Haggart* 
who was remarkable for dis- 
honesty, should be placed in 
situations of trust, in which 
there should be presented to 
them temptations to decep- 
tion and embezzlement, which 
could be resisted only by 
strong sentiments of justice, 
their misconduct, sooner or 
later, would be almost cer- 
tain, owing to the great size 
of their animal organs, and 
the deficiency of their organs 
of Conscientiousness. I have 
seen so many instances of 
dishonest practices in con- 
comitance with similar com- 
binations, that I cannot doubt 

of their connection. Where „ 

. 13. Firmness large ; 16. Conscien 

external circumstances re- tiousness deficient ; 12. Cautious- 
move from persons thus con- ness rather large, 
stituted all temptation to pilfering, their deficient perceptions 
of justice will still be discernible in the laxness of their no- 
tions of morality, in their treatment of inferiors, and in their 
general conduct. ,c 




t@2 CHOICE OF SERVANTS. 

Again, if a person were wanted for any situation in which 
isrreat decision of character, steadiness, and perseverance, 
were necessary, and we selected a candidate whose brain, at 
the organ of Firmness, resembled that of Mrs. H., we should 
assuredly be disappointed. This lady, as already mentioned, 
was remarkable for vacillation of purpose; and I have 
never seen a single instance of decision of character com- 
Dined with such a defect of brain as is here represented. 
These cases are introduced merely as examples and illustra- 
tions. The reader who wishes to pursue the subject farther, 
is referred to the common treatises on Phrenology and the 
Phrenological Journal for additional information. 

If any man were to go to sea in a boat of pasteboard, 
which the very fluidity of the element would dissolve, no one 
would be surprised at his being drowned ; and, in like man- 
ner, if the Creator has constituted the brain so as to exert a 
great influence over the mental dispositions, and if, neverthe- 
less, men are pleased to treat this fact with neglect and con- 
tempt, and to place individuals, naturally deficient in the 
moral organs, in situations where great morality is required, 
they have no cause to be surprised if they suffer the penalties 
of their own misconduct, in being plundered and defrauded. 

Although T can state, from experience, that it is possible, 
by the aid of Phrenology, to select individuals whose moral 
I qualities may be relied on, yet the extremely limited extent 
of our practical knowledge in regard to the intellectual talents 
that fit persons for particular duties, must be confessed. To 
be able to judge accurately what combination of natural 
talents and dispositions in an individual will best fit him for 
any given employment, we must have seen a variety of com- 
binations tried in particular departments, and observed their 
effects. It is impossible, at least for me, to anticipate with 
certainty, in new cases, what these effects will be ; but I have 
ever found nature constant; and after once discovering, bv 
experience, an assortment of qualities suited to a particulai 
uty, I have found no subsequent exception to the rule. 
Cases in which the predominance of particular regions of the 
brain, such as the moral and intellectual, is very decided, 
present fewest difficulties ; although, even in them, the very 
deficiency of animal organs may sometimes incapacitate an 
individual for important stations. Where the three classes 
of organs, the animal, moral, and intellectual, are nearly in 
equilibrioy the most opposite results may ensue by exciting 



ORGANIC LAWS. 183 

the one or the other to decided predominance in activity, and 
little reliance ought to be placed on individuals thus consti- 
tuted, except when temptations are removed, and strong mo- 
tives to virtue presented. 

Having now adverted to calamities from external violence 
— to bad health — to unhappiness in the domestic circle, arising 
from ill-advised unions and viciously disposed children — and 
to the evils suffered from placing individuals, as servants, 
clerks, partners, or public instructors, in situations for which 
they are not suited by their natural qualities — and traced all 
of them to infringements or neglect of the physical or organic 
laws, I proceed to advert to the last, and what is reckoned the 
greatest, of all calamities, Death, which itself is obviously a 
part of the organic law. 

In the introduction, to which I refer, I have stated briefly 
the changes which occurred in the globe before man was 
introduced to inhabit it. The researches of geologists have 
shown that the world we inhabit was at first in a fluid con- 
dition ; that crystalline rocks were deposited before animal or 
vegetable life began; that then came the lowest orders of 
zoophytes and of vegetables ; next fishes and reptiles — and 
trees in vast forests, giving origin to our present beds of coal ; 
then quadrupeds and birds, and shells and plants, resembling 
those of the present era, but all of which, as species, have 
utterly perished from the earth: that next came alluvial 
rocks, containing bones of mammoths and other gigantic 
animals ; and that last of all came man. Dr. Buckland has 
shown that certain long, rounded, stony bodies, like oblong peb- 
bles or kidney potatoes, scattered on the shore at Lyme Regis, 
and frequently lying beside the bones of the surain or lizard- 
like reptiles there discovered, are the dung of these animals 
in fossil state. Many specimens of them contain scales, 
teeth, and bones of fishes, that seem to have passed undi- 
gested through the body of the animal ; just as the enamel 
of the teeth and fragments of bone are found undigested ip 
the dung of the ravenous hyena. Similar fossils (scientifi- 
cally named coprolites) are found on the shore of the Firth 
of Forth, about a mile westward from Newhaven. These 
facts show that death, or destruction of vegetable and ani- 
mal life, was an institution of nature before man became an 
inhabitant of the globe. 

Physiologists in general regard the organic frame of man 
•Uo as containing within itself the seeds of dissolution.. 



184 DEATH. 

* The last character," says a popular author, " by which the 
living body is distinguished, is that of terminating its exist* 
ence by the process of death. The vital energies by which 
the circle of actions and reactions necessary to life is sus- 
tained, at length decline, and finally become exhausted. In- 
organic bodies preserve their existence unalterably and for 
ever, unless some mechanical force, or some chemical agent 
separate their particles or alter their composition. But, i> 
every living body, its vital motions inevitably cease, soone. 
or later, from the operation of causes that are internal and 
inherent. Thus, to terminate its existence by death, is as 
distinctive of a living being as to derive its origin from a pre- 
existing germ."* 

It is beyond the compass of philosophy to explain why the 
world was constituted in the manner here represented. I 
therefore make no inquiry why death was instituted, and 
refer, of course, only to the dissolution of organized bodies, 
and not at all to the state of the soul or mind after its sepa- 
ration from the body. This belongs to Revelation. 

Let us first view the dissolution of the body abstractedly 
from personal considerations, as a mere natural arrangement. 
Death, then, appears to be a result of the constitution of all 
organized beings ; foi the very definition of the genus is, that 
the individuals grow, attain maturity, decay, and die. The 
human imagination cannot conceive how the former part of 
this series of movements could exist without the latter, as 
long as space is necessary to corporeal existence. If all the 
vegetable and animal productions of nature, from creation 
downwards, had grown, attained maturity, and there re- 
mained, the world would not have been capable of con- 
taining the thousandth part of them ; so that, on this earth, 
decaying and dying appear indispensably necessary to admit 
of reproduction and growth. Viewed abstractedly, then, 
organized beings live as long as health and vigor continue , 
but they are subjected to a process of decay, which impairs 
gradually all their functions, and at last terminates in their 
lissolution. Now, in the vegetable world, the effect of this 
law is, to surround us with young trees, in place of ever- 
lasting stately full-grown forests, standing forth in awful 
majesty, without variation in leaf or bough ; — with the vernal 
bloom of spring, changing gracefully into the vigor of sun> 

' Animal Physiology, p 7 ; Library of Useful Knowledge 



ORGANIC LAWS. 185 

mer and the maturity of autumn ; — with the rose, first simply 
and delicately budding, then luxuriant and lovely in its pcr- 
f ofl evolution. In short, when we advert to the law of death, 
a> instituted in the vegetable kingdom, and as related to our 
own faculties of Ideality and Wonder, which desire and de- 
light in the very changes which death introduces, we without 
hesitation exclaim, that all is wisely and wonderfully made. 
Turning again to the animal kingdom, we discover that the 
same fundamental principle prevails. Death removes the 
old and decayed, and the organic law introduces in their 
place the young, the gay. and the vigorous, to tread the stage 
with renewed agility and delight. 

This transfer of existence may readily be granted to be 
beneficial to the young ; but at first sight it appears the op- 
posite of benevolent to the old. To have lived at all, is felt 
as giving a right to continue to live ; and the question arises, 
How can the institution of death, as the result of the organic 
law, be reconciled with benevolence and justice ? 

I am aware that, theologically, death is regarded as the 
punishment of sin, and that the attempt t© reconcile our 
minds to it by reason is objected to as at once futile and 
dangerous. But I beg leave to observe, that philosophers 
have established, by irrefragable evidence, that before man 
was created, death prevailed among the lower animals, not 
only by natural decay and the operation of physical forces, 
out by the express institution of carnivorous creatures des- 
tined to prey on living beings ; that man himself is carnivo- 
rous, and obviously framed by the Creator for a scene of 
death ; that his organic constitution, in its inherent qualities, 
implies death as its final termination ; and that if these facts 
be admitted to be undeniable on the one hand, and we are 
prohibited, on the other, from attempting to discover, from 
the records of creation itself, the wise adaptation of the hu- 
man feelings and intellect to this state of things, neither the 
cause of revelation nor that of reason can be thereby bene- 
fited. The foregoing facts cannot be disputed or concealed ; 
and the only effect of excluding the investigation on which I 
propose to enter, would be to close the path of reason, and 
to leave the constitution of the external world and of the 
human mind apparently in a state of contradiction to each 
other. Let us rather trust to the inherent consistency of all 
truths, and rely on all sound conclusions of reason being in 
accordance with every correct interpretation of Scripture. 
16* 



186 DiATH* 

In treating of the supremacy of the moral sentiments, 4 
pointed out, that the grand distinction between those senti- 
ments and the propensities consists in this — that the former 
are in their nature disinterested, generous, and fond of the 
general good, while the latter aim only at the welfare or 
gratification of the individual. It is obvious that death, as 
an institution of the Creator, must affect those two classes of 
faculties in the most different manner. A being endowe 
only with propensities and intellect, and enabled, by the latter 
to discover death and its consequences, would probably re 
gard it as an appalling visitation. It would see in it only th 
utter extinction of enjoyment to itself; for although it per- 
ceived existence transferred to other beings, who would enjoy 
life after its removal from the scene, this would afford it no 
consolation, in consequence of its wanting all the faculties 
which derive pleasure from disinterestedly contemplating the 
enjoyments of other creatures. The lower animals, then, 
whose whole being is composed of the inferior propensities 
and several knowing faculties, would probably see death, if 
they could at all anticipate it, in this light. It would appear 
to them as the extinguisher of every pleasure which they had 
ever felt ; and apparently the bare prospect of it would render 
their lives so wretched, that nothing could alleviate the de- 
pressing gloom with which the habitual consciousness of it 
would inspire them. But, by depriving them of reflective 
faculties, the Creator has kindly and affectionately withdrawn 
from them this evil. He has thereby rendered them com*- 
pletely blind to its existence. There is not the least reason 
to believe that any one of the lower animals, while in health 
and vigor, has the slightest conception that it is a mortal 
creature, any more than a tree has that it will die. In con- 
sequence, it lives in as full enjoyment of the present, as if it 
were assured of every agreeable sensation being eternal. 
Death always takes the individual by surprise, whether it 
comes in the form of violence suppressing life in youth, or of 
slow decay by age ; and really operates as a transference of 
existence from one being to another, without consciousness 
of the loss in the one which dies. Let us, however, trace 
the operation of death, in regard to the lower animals, a little 
more in detail. 

Philosophy, as already remarked, cannot explain why death 
was instituted at first; but, according to the views maintained 
in this work, we should expect to find it connected with, and 



ORGANIC LAWS. 187 

regulated by, benevolence and justice — that is to say, that it 
should not be inflicted for the sole purpose of extinguishing 
the life of individuals, to their damage, without any other 
result; but that the general system under which it takes 
place should be, on the whole, favorable to the enjoyment not 
only of the race, but of each individual animal while life is 
given. And this accordingly is the fact. Violent death, and 
the devouring of one animal by another, are not purely be* 
evolent; because pure benevolence would never inflict pain: 
ut they are instances of destruction leading to beneficial 
results ; that is, wherever death is introduced under the insti- 
tutions of nature, it is accompanied with enjoyment or bene- 
ficial consequences to the very animals which are to become 
the subjects of it. While the world is calculated to support 
only a limited number of living creatures, the lower animals 
have received from nature powers of reproduction far beyond 
what are necessary to supply the waste of natural decay, and 
they do not possess intellect sufficient to restrain their num- 
bers within the limits of their means of subsistence. Herbivo- 
rous animals, in particular, are exceedingly prolific, and yet the 
supply of vegetable food is limited. Hence, after multiplication 
for a few years, extensive starvation, the most painful and 
lingering of all deaths, and the most detrimental to the race, 
would inevitably ensue : but carnivorous animals have been 
instituted who kill and eat them ; and, by this means, not 
only do carnivorous animals reap the pleasures of life, but 
the numbers of the herbivorous are restrained within such 
limits that the individuals among them enjoy existence while 
they live.* The destroyers, again, are limited in their turn : 
the moment they become too numerous, and carry their de- 
vastations too far, their food fails them, and they die of starva- 
tion, or, in their conflicts for the supplies that remain, destroy 
one another. Nature seems averse from inflicting death ex- 
tensively by starvation, probably because it impairs the con- 
stitution long before it extinguishes life, and has the tendency 

♦St. Pierre states this argument forcibly.— " By their production 
without restraint," says he, •« creatures would be multiplied bevond 
all limits, till even the globe itself could not contain them. The'pre- 
Bervation of every individual produced, would lead to ultimate de- 
struction of the species. Some will answer, that the animals might 
live always, if they observed a proportion suitable to the territory 
which they inhabited. But, according to this supposition, they must 
at last cease to multiply; and then adieu to the loves and alliances, 
the building of nests, and all the harmonies which reign in their na- 
ture. "—Rude de la Natur , Paris, 1791, p. 17. 



f 88 »£ATH. 

to produce degene/av,j" n the race. It may be remarked also, 
speculatively, that herbivorous animals must have existed in 
considerable numbers before the carnivorous began to exer- 
cise their functions ; for many of the former must die, that 
one of the latter may live. If a single sheep and a single 
tiger had been placed together at first, the tiger would have 
eaten up the sheep at a few meals, and afterwards died itself 
of starvation. 

There is reason to believe, that, in the state of nature, 
death is attended with very little suffering to the lower crea 
tures. In natural decay, the organs are worn out by mere 
age, and the animal sinks into gradual insensibility, uncon- 
scious that dissolution awaits it. Farther, the wolf, the tiger, the 
lion, and other beasts of prey instituted by the Creator as 
instruments of violent death, are provided, in addition to 
Destructiveness, with large organs of Cautiousness and Secre- 
tiveness, which prompt them to steal upon their victims with 
the unexpected suddenness of a mandate of annihilation ; 
and they are also impelled to inflict death in the most instan- 
taneous and least painful method. The tiger and lion spring 
from their covers with the rapidity of the thunderbolt, and 
dhe blow of their tremendous paws, inflicted at the junction 
of the head with the neck, produces instantaneous death. 
The eagle is taught to strike its sharp beak into the spine of 
the birds which it devours, and their agony endures scarcely 
for an instant It has been objected that the cat plays with 
the unhappy mouse, and prolongs its tortures : but the cat 
that does so, is the pampered and well-fed inhabitant of a 
kitchen ; the cat of nature is too eager to devour, to indulge 
in such luxurious gratifications of Destructiveness and Secre- 
tiveness. It kills in a moment, and eats. Here, then, is 
actually a regularly organized process for withdrawing indi- 
viduals among the lower animals from existence, almost by a 
fiat of destruction, and thereby providing for the comfortable 
subsistence of the creatures themselves while they live, and 
making way for a succession of new occupants. " Nature," 
says St. Pierre, " does nothing in vain : she intends few ani 
mals to die of old age ; and I believe that she has permitted 
to none except man to run the entire course of life, because 
in his case alone can old age be useful to the race. What 
would be the advantage of old animals, incapable of reflec- 
tion, to a posterity born with instincts holding the place of 
•xperience; and how, on the other hand, would decrepid 



ORGANIC LAWS. 189 

parents find support among offspring which instinctively leave 
them whenever they are able to swim, to fly, or to run 1 Old 
age would prove to such creatures a burden ; of which beasts 
of prey mercifully deliver them." 

Man, in his mode of puttting the lower creatures to death, 
is not so tender as beasts of prey : but he might be so. Sup- 
pose the sheep to be guillotined, and not maltreated before its 
execution, the creature would never know that it had ceased 
to live. And, by the law which I have already explained, 
man does not with impunity add one unnecessary pang to 
the death of the inferior animals. In the butcher who inflicts 
torments on calves, sheep, and cattle, while driving them to 
the slaughter — and who kills them in the way supposed to be 
most conducive to the gratification of his Acquisitiveness, 
such as bleeding them to death, by successive stages, pro- 
longed for days to whiten their flesh — the animal faculties of 
Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self-Esteem, predomi- 
nate so decidedly in activity over the moral powers, that he 
is necessarily excluded from all the enjoyments attendant on 
the supremacy of the human faculties : He, besides, goes into 
society under the influence of the same base combination, 
and suffers at every hand animal retaliation ; so that he does- 
not escape with impunity for his outrages against the moral 
law. 

Here, then, we can perceive nothing malevolent in the 
institution of death, in so far as regards the lower animals. 
A pang certainly does attend it ; but while Destructiveness 
must be recognized in the pain, Benevolence is equally per 
ceptible in its effects. 

To repair injuries sustained by objects governed exclusively 
by physical laws, no remedial process is instituted by nature. 
If a mirror falls, and is smashed, it remains ever after in 
fragments ; if a ship sinks, it lies still at the bottom of the 
ocean, chained down by the law of gravitation. Under the 
organic law, on the other hand, a distinct remedial process is 
established. If a tree is blown over, every root that remains 
in the ground will double its exertions to preserve life ; if a 
branch is lopped off, new branches will shoot out in its place 
if a leg in an animal is broken, the bone will reunite ; if a 
muscle is severed, it will grow together ; if an artery is ob- 
literated, the neighboring arteries will enlarge their dimen- 
sions, and perform its duty. The Creator, however, not to 
encourage animals to abuse this benevolent institution, has 



190 DEATH. 

established pain as an attendant on infringement of the 
organic law, and made them suffer for the violation of it, 
even while he restores them. It is under this law that death 
has received its pangs. Instant death is not attended with 
pain of any perceptible duration ; and it is only when a 
lingering death occurs in youth and middle age, that the suf 
fering is severe. Dissolution, 'however, does not occur at 
these periods as a direct and intentional result of the organic 
laws, but as a consequence of infringement of them. Under 
the fair and legitimate operation of these laws, the individual 
whose constitution was at first sound, and whose life has been 
in accordance with their dictates will live till old age fairly 
wears out his organized frame, and then the pang of expira- 
tion is little perceptible.* 

This view of our constitution is objected to by some per- 
sons, because disease appears to them to invade our bodies 
and after a time to end in death or disappear, without anj 
organic cause being discoverable. On this subject I would 
observe, that there is a vast difference between the uncertain 
and the unascertained. It is now universally admitted that 
all the movements of matter are regulated by laws, and that 
the motions are never uncertain, although their laws may in 
some instances be unascertained. The revolutions of the 
planets, for example, are fully understood, while those of 
some of the comets are as yet unknown ; but no philosopher 
imagines that the latter are uncertain. The minutest drop 

* The following table is copied from an interesting article by Mr. 
William Fraser, on the History and Constitution of Benefit or Friendly 
Societies, published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal for 
October, 1827, and is deduced from Returns by Friendly Societies in 
Scotland for various years, from 1750 to 1821. It shows how much 
sickness increases with age. and how little there is of it in youth, 
even in the present disordered state of human conduct. We may 
expect the quantity to decrease, at all ages, in proportion to the in- 
crease of obedience to the organic laws. It is chiefly in advanced 
life, when the constitution has lost a portion of its vigor, that tha 
accumulated effects of disobedience become apparent. 

Average Jlnmuxl Sickness of Each Individual. 

. Weeks and Wk D „ Proportion of Sick 

A = e * Decimals. weeKs - - Ua ^ 8 - -Hours. Members. 

Under 20 0.3797 2 16 1 in 136.95 

20-30 0.5916 4 3 1 — 87.89 

30-40 0.6865 4 19 1 — 75 74 

40-50 1.0273 1 4 1 — 50.61 

50-60 1.8806 1 6 3 1 — 27.65 

60-70 5.6337 5 4 10 1-9.23 

Abore 70 16.5417 16 3 19 1 — S.14 



ORGANIC LAWS. 191 

of watei that descends the mighty Fall of Niagara, is regu- 
lated in all its movements hy definite laws — whether it rise 
in mist, and float in the atmosphere to distant regions, there 
to descend as rain ; or be absorbed by a neighboring shrub, 
and reappear as an atom in a blossom adorning the Canadian 
shore ; or be drunk up by a living creature, and sent into the 
wonderful circuit of its blood ; or become a portion of an oak, 
which at a future time shall career over the ocean as a ship 
Nothing can be less ascertained, or probably less ascertainable 
by mortal study, than the motions of such an atom ; but every 
philosopher will, without a moment's hesitation, concecre that 
not one of them is uncertain.* The first element in a philo- 
sophic understanding is the capacity of extending the same 
conviction to the events evolved in every department of na- 
ture. A man who sees disease occurring in youth or middle 
age, and whose mind is not capable of perceiving that it is 
the result of imperfect or excessive action in some vital organ, 
and that imperfect or excessive action is just another name 
for deviation from the proper healthy state of that organ, is 
not capable of reasoning on the subject. It may be true that 
in many instances our knowledge is so imperfect, that we are 
incapable of unfolding the chain of connexion between the 
disease and its organic cause ; but he is no philosopher who 
doubts the reality of the connexion. 

One reason of the obscurity that prevails on this subject, 
in the minds of persons not medically educated, is ignorance 
of the structure and functions of the body ; and another is, 
that diseases appear under two very distinct forms — structu- 
ral and functional — Only the first of which is understood by 
common observers to constitute a proper organic malady. If 
an arrow is shot into the eye, there is derangement of the 
structure ; and the most determined opponent of the natural 
laws will at once admit the connexion between the blindness 
which ensues, and tfrfcjesion of the organ. But if a watch- 
maker or an optical-instrument-maker, by long continued and 
excessive exertion of the eye, has become blind, the disease 
is called functional ; the function, from its organ being over- 
wrought, has given way, but frequently no alteration of structure 
can be perceived. No philosophic physiologist, however, doubt* 
that there is a change in the structure, corresponding to th« 
functional derangement, although human observation cannot 

• I owe this forcible illustration to Dr. Chalmers, having heard if 
hi one of his Lectures. 



193 DEATH. 

detect it. He never says that it is nonsense to assert that th# 
patient has become blind in consequence of infringement of 
the organic laws. It is one of these laws that the eyes shall 
be exercised moderately, and it is a breach of that law to 
strain them to excess. The same principle applies to an im- 
mense number of diseases occurring under the organic laws. 
Imperfections in the tone, structure, or proportion of certain 
organs, may exist at birth, so hidden by their situation, or so 
slight, as not to be readily perceptible, but not the less on 
that account real and important ; or deviations may be made 
gradually and imperceptibly from the proper and healthy ex 
ercise of the functions ; and from one or other cause disease 
may invade the constitution. Religious persons term the 
disease a dispensation of God's providence ; the careless name 
it an unaccountable event; but the enlightened physician 
invariably views it as the result of imperfect or excessive 
action of some organ or another, and he never doubts that it 
has been caused by deviations from the laws which the Crea- 
tor has prescribed for the regulation of the animal economy. 
The objection that the doctrine of the organic laws which I 
have been inculcating is unsound, because diseases come and 
go without uneducated persons being able* to trace the causes, 
has not a shadow of philosophy to support it. I may eir 
in my exposition of these laws ; but I hope that I do not err 
in stating that neither disease nor death, in early and middle 
life, can take place under the ordinary administration of Pro- 
vidence, except when the laws have been infringed. 

The pains of premature death, then, are the punishment* 
of infringement of the organic law ; and the object of that 
chastisement probably is to impress upon us the necessity of 
obeying them that we may live, and to prevent our abusing 
the remedial process inherent to a great extent in our consti- 
tution. 

Let us now view death as an institution appointed to man. 
If it be true that the organic constitution of man, when sound 
in its elements, and preserved in accordance with the organic 
laws, is fairly calculated to endure in health from infancy to 
old age ; and that death, when it occurs during the early or 
middle periods of life, is the consequence of departure from 
the physical and organic laws ; it follows, that, even in prema- 
ture death, a benevolent principle is discernible. Although 
the remedial process restores animals from moderate injuries. 
yet the very nature of the organic law must place a limit tc 



ORGANIC LAWS. 193 

it Tf life had boon preserved, and health restored, a*ter the 
brain Lad been blown to atoms by a bombshell, as effectually 
as a broken leg and a cut finger are healed, this would have 
been an actual abrogation of the organic law; and all the 
curbs which that law imposes on the lower propensities, and 
all the incitements which it affords to the higher sentiments 
and intellect, would have been lost. The limit, then, is this 
— that any disobedience from the effects of which restoration 
is permitted, shall be moderate in extent, and shall not involve, 
to a great degree, any organ essential to life, such as the 
brain, lungs, stomach, or intestines. The very maintenance 
of the law, with all its advantages, requires that restoration from 
grievous derangement of these organs should not be permit- 
ted. When we reflect on the hereditary transmission of quali- 
ties to children, we clearly perceive benevolence to the race, 
in the institution which cuts short the life of an individual in 
whose person disease of essential organs has become so great 
as to have exceeded the limits of the remedial process ; for 
the extension of the punishment of his errors over an innu- 
merable posterity is thereby prevented. In premature death, 
then, we see two objects accomplished : first, the individual 
sufferer is withdrawn from agonies which could serve no 
beneficial end to himself — he has transgressed the limits of 
recovery, and continued life would be protracted misery; and, 
secondly, the race is guaranteed against the future transmis- 
sion of his disease by hereditary descent. 

The disciple of Mr. Owen formerly alluded to, who had 
grievously transgressed the organic law and suffered a punish- 
ment of equal intensity, observed, when in the midst of his 
agony — " Philosophers have urged the institution of death as 
an argument against divine goodness ; but not one of them 
^ould experience, for five minutes, the pain which I now en- 
dure, without looking upon ibas a most merciful arrangement. 
I have departed from the natural laws, and suffered the punish- 
ment ; but I see in deatu only the Creator's benevolent hand, 
stretched out to terminate my agonies when they cease to 
serve any beneficial end. 1 ' On this principle, the death of a 
feeble and sickly child is an act of mercy to it. It withdraws 
a being, in whose person the organic laws have been violated, 
from useless suffering ; cutting short, thereby, also the trans- 
missions of its imperfections to posterity. If, then, the organie 
institutions which inflict pain and disease, as punishments for 
transgressing them, are founded in benevolence and wisdom , 
13 17 



194 DEATH. 

und if death, in the early and middle periods of life, is a* 
arrangement for withdrawing the transgressor from further 
suffering, after return to ohedience is impossible, and pro- 
tecting the race from the consequences of his error, it also is 
in itself wise and benevolent. 

This, then, leaves only death in old age as a natural and 
unavoidable institution of the Creator. It will not be denied, 
that, if old persons, when their powers of enjoyment are 
fairly exhausted, and their cup of pleasure is full, could be 
removed from this world, as we have supposed the lower ani- 
mals to be, in an instant, and without pain or consciousness, 
to make way for a fresh and vigorous offspring, about to run 
the career which the old have terminated, there would be no 
lack of benevolence and justice in the arrangement. At 
present, while we live in ignorance and habitual neglect of 
the organic laws, death probably comes upon us with more 
pain and agony, even in advanced life, than would be its 
legitimate accompaniment if we placed ourselves in accord- 
ance with these ; so that we are not now in a condition to 
ascertain the natural quantity of pain necessarily attendant 
on death. Judging from analogy, we may conclude, that trie 
close of a long life, founded at first, and afterwards spent, in 
accordance with the Creator's laws, would not be accompa- 
nied with great organic suffering, but that an insensible decay 
would steal upon the frame. 

Be this, however, as it may, I observe, in the next place, 
that as the Creator has bestowed on man animal faculties 
that fear death, and reason that carries home to him the 
conviction that he must die, it is an interesting inquiry, 
whether He has provided any natural means of relief from 
the consequences of this combination of terror. " And what 
thinkest thou," said Socrates to Aristodemus, " of this con- 
tinual love of life, this dread of dissolution, which takes pos- 
session of us from the moment that we are conscious of ex- 
istence 1" " I think of it," answered he, " as the means 
employed by the same great and wise artist, deliberately 
determined to preserve what he has made." Lord Byron 
strongly expresses the same opinion, and is struck with the 
energetic efforts which he instinctively made in a moment of 
danger, to preserve his life, although in his hours of calm 
reflection he felt so unhappy that he wished to die. There 
are reasons for believing not only that the love of life is a 
special inniuct, but that it is connected with a particular 



OHCiANIC LAWS. 195 

•rgan, which is supposed to be situated at the base of the 
brain ; and that, ceteris paribus, the feeling varies in inten- 
sity in different individuals, according to the size of the organ* 
I have ascertained, from numerous confidential communica 
tions, as well as by observation, that even when external 
circumstances are equally prosperous and happy, there are 
great differences in the desire of life in different minds. Some 
persons have assured me, that death, viewed even as the ex- 
tinction of being, and without reference to a future state, did 
not appear to them in the least appalling, or calculated, when 
contemplated as their certain fate, to impair the enjoyment of 
life ; and these were not profligate men, whose vices might 
make them desire annihilation as preferable to future punish- 
ment, but persons of pure lives and pious dispositions. This 
experience is so different from the feelings entertained by 
ordinary persons, that I have been led to ascribe it to a very 
small development of the organ of the Love of Life in these 
individuals. A medical gentleman who was attached to the 
native army in India, informed me, that in many of the 
Hindoos the Love of Live was by no means strong. On the 
contrary, it was frequently found necessary to interpose force 
to compel them to make even moderate exertions, quite within 
the compass of their strength, to avoid death. That part of 
the base of the brain which lies between the ear and the an- 
terior lobe, is generally narrow, measuring across the head, 
in such individuals. If there be an organ for the love of life, 
the vivacity of the instinct will diminish in proportion as the 
organ decays; so that age, which induces the certain ap- 
proach of death, will, in a corresponding degree, strip him of 
his terrors. The apparent exceptions to this rule will be found 
in cases in which this organ predominates in size and activity, 
and preserves an ascendency over the other organs even in 
decay. 

These ideas, however, are thrown out only as specula- 
tions, suggested by the facts before described. Whatever 
may be thought of them, it is certain that the Creator has 
bestowed moral sentiments on man, and arranged the whole 
of his existence on the principles of their supremacy ; and 
these, when duly cultivated and enlightened, are calculated to 
withdraw from him the terrors of death, in the same manner 
as unconsciousness of its existence saves from them the lowe- 
animals. 

1a/, It is obvious that Amativeness and Philoprogenitivene** 



196 DEATH. 

are provided with direct objects of gratification, as one con. 
comitant of the institution of death. If the same individuals 
had lived here for ever, there would have been no field for 
the enjoyment that flows from the domes :ic union and the 
rearing of offspring. The very existence of these propensi- 
ties shows that the production and rearing of young form 
part of the design of creation ; and the successive production 
of young appears necessarily to imply removal of the old. 

2c?, Had things been otherwise arranged, all the other 
faculties would have been limited in their gratifications. 
Conceive, for a moment, how much exercise is afforded to 
our intellectual and moral powers, in acquiring knowledge, 
communicating it to the young, and providing for their en- 
joyments — also, what a delightful exercise of the higher 
sentiments is implied in the intercourse between the aged 
and the young; all which pleasures would have been un- 
known had there been no young in existence, which there 
could not have been without a succession of generations. 

3d, Constituted as man is, the succession of individuals 
withdraws beings whose physical and mental constitutions 
have run their course and become impaired in sensibility, and 
substitutes in their piace fresh and vigorous minds and bodies, 
far better adapted for the enjoyment of creation. 

4fh, If I am right in the position that the organic laws 
transmit to offspring, in an increasing ratio, the qualities 
most active in the parents, the law of succession provides for 
a far higher degree of improvement in the race than could 
have been reached, supposing the permanency of a single 
generation possessing the present human constitution. 

Let us inquire, then, how the moral sentiments are affected 
by death in old age, as a natural institution. 

Benevolence, glowing with a disinterested desire for the 
diffusion and increase of enjoyment, utters no complaint 
against death in old age, as a transference of existence from 
a being impaired in its capacity for usefulness and pleasure, 
to one fresh and vigorous in all its powers, and fitted to carry 
forward, to a higher point of improvement- every beneficial 
measure previously begun. Conscientiousnetess, if thoroughly 
enlightened, perceives no infringement of justice in the calling 
on a guest, satiated with enjoyment, to retire from the banquet, 
so as to permit a stranger with a keener and more youthful 
appetite to partake ; and Veneration, when instructed by 
intellect that this is the institution of the Creator, and made 



ORGANIC LAWS. 197 

acquainted with its objects, bows in humble acquiescence to 
the law. Now, if these powers have acquired, in any indi- 
vidual, that complete supremacy which they are clearly in 
tended to hold, he will be placed by them as much above the 
terror of death as a natural institution, as the lower animals 
are by being ignorant of its existence. And unless the case 
were so, man would, by the very knowledge of death, be 
rendered, during his whole life, more miserable than they. 

In these observations I have said nothing of the prospect o! 
a future existence as a palliative of the evils of dissolution, 
because I was bound to regard death, in the first instance, as 
the result of the organic law, and to treat of it as such. But 
no one who considers that the prospect of a happy life to 
come, is directly addressed to Veneration, Hope, Wonder, 
Benevolence, and Intellect, can fail to perceive that this con- 
solation also is clearly founded on the principle, that the 
moral sentiments are intended by the Creator to protect man 
from the terrors of death. 

The true view of death, therefore, as a natural institution, 
is, that it is an essential part of the very system of organiza- 
tion ; that birth, growth, and arrival at maturity, as com- 
pletely imply decay and death in old age, as morning and 
noon imply evening and night, as spring and summer imply 
harvest, or as the source of a river implies its termination. 
Besides, organized beings are constituted by the Creator to be 
the food of other organized beings, so that some must die 
that others may live. Man, for instance, cannot live on 
stones, earth, or water, which are not organized, but must 
feed on vegetable and animal substances ; so that death is as 
much, and as essentially, an inherent attribute of organiza- 
tion as life itself. If vegetables, animals, and men, had been 
destined for a duration like that of mountains, we may pre- 
sume, from analogy, that God — instead of creating a primi- 
tive pair of each, and endowing these with extensive powers 
of -reproduction, so as to usher into existence young beings 
destined to grow up to maturity by insensible degrees — would 
nave furnished the world with its definite complement of 
living beings, perfect at first in all their parts and functions, 
and that these would have remained, like hills, without 
diminution and without increase. 

To prevent, however, all chance of being misapprehended, 
I repeat, that I do not at all allude to the state of the soul or 
mind after death, but merely to the dissolution of organized 
17* 



198 DEATH. 

bodies ; that, according to the soundest view which I am able 
to obtain of the natural law, pain and death during youth 
and middle age, in the human species, are consequences of 
departure from the Creator's laws — while death in old age, 
by insensible decay, is an essential and apparently indis- 
pensable part of the system of organic existence ; that this 
arrangement admits of the succession of individuals, substi 
tuting the young and vigorous for the feeble and decayed , 
that it is directly the means by which organized beings live, 
and indirectly the means by which Amativeness, Philoprogeni 
tiveness, and a variety of our other faculties, obtain gratifica- 
tion; that it admits of the race ascending in the scale of 
improvement, both in their organic and in their mental quali- 
ties ; and, finally, that the moral sentiments, when supreme 
in activity, and enlightened by intellect, which perceives its 
design and consequences, are calculated to place man in 
harmony with it ; while religion addresses its consolation to 
the same faculties, and completes what reason leaves undone, 
If the views now unfolded be correct, death in old age will 
never be abolished as long as man continues an organized 
being; but pain and the frequency of premature death will 
decrease, in the exact ratio of his obedience to the physical 
and organic laws. It is interesting to observe, that there is 
already some evidence of this process having actually begun. 
About seventy years ago, tables of the average duration of 
life in England were compiled for the use of the Life Insu- 
rance Companies ; and from them it appears that the average 
duration of life was then 28 years — that is, 1000 persons 
being born, and the years of their respective lives being added 
together, and divided by one thousand, the result was 28 to 
each. By recent tables, it appears that the average is now 
32 years to each; that is to say, in consequence of superior 
morality, cleanliness, knowledge, and general obedience to the 
Creator's laws, fewer individuals now perish in infancy, 
youth, and middle age, than thus perished seventy years ago. 
Some persons have said that the difference arises from errors 
in compiling the old tables, and that the superior habits of 
the people are not the cause. It is probable that there may 
be a portion of truth in both views. There may be some 
errors in the old tables, hut it is quite natural that increasing 
knowledge and stricter obedience to the organic laws should 
diminish the number of premature deaths. If this idea be 
correct, the average duration of life should go on increasing 



THE MORAL LAW. 1 ( J9 

and our successors, two centuries hence, may probably attain 
to an average of 40 years, and then ascribe to errors in oui 
tables the present low average of 32.* 

SECT. III.— CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF 
THE MORAL LAW. 

We come now to consider the Moral Law, which is pro 
claimed by the higher sentiments and intellect, acting harmo 
niously, and holding the animal faculties in subjection. Ii 
surveying the moral and religious codes of different nations, 
and the moral and religious opinions of different philoso- 
phers, every reflecting mind must have been struck with their 
diversity. Phrenology, by demonstrating the differences of 
combination of the faculties, enables us to account for these 
varieties of sentiment The code of morality framed by a 
, legislator in whom the animal propensities were strong and 
the moral sentiments weak, would be very different from one 
constituted by another lawgiver, in whom this combination 
was reversed. In like manner, a system of religion, founded 
by an individual in whom Destructiveness, Wonder, and 
Cautiousness, were very large, and Veneration, Benevolence, 
and Conscientiousness deficient, would present views of the 
Supreme Being widely dissimilar to those which would be 
promulgated by a person in whom the last three faculties and 
intellect decidedly predominated. Phrenology shows that the 
particular code of morality and religion which is most com- 
pletely in harmony with the whole faculties of the indi- 
vidual, will necessarily appear to him to be the best while he 
refers only to the dictate* of hi* individual mind as the 
standard of right and wrong. But if we are able to show 
that the whole scheme of external creation is arranged in 
harmony with certain principles, in preference to others, so 
that enjoyment flows upon the individual from without when 
his conduct is in conformity with them, and that evil over- 
takes him when he departs from them, we shall then obvi- 
ously prove that the former is the morality and religion esta- 
blished by the Creator, and that individual men, who support 
different codes, must necessarily be deluded by imperfections 
in their own minds. That constitution of mind, also, may be 
pronounced to be the best, which harmonizes most completely 
with the morality and religion established by the Creator's 

* See Appendix, No. IX. 



200 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

p rrangements. In this view, rnorality becomes a science, and 
departures from its dictates may be demonstrated as practical 
follies, injurious to the real interest and happiness of the indi- 
vidual, just as errors in logic are capable of refutation to the 
satisfaction of the understanding. 

Dugald Stewart has most justly remarked, that " the im- 
portance of agriculture and of religious toleration to the pros- 
perity of states, the criminal impolicy of thwarting the kind 
arrangements of Providence by restraints upon commerce, 
and the duty of legislators to study the laws of the moral 
world as the g)*oundwork and standard of their own, appear, 
to minds unsophisticated by inveterate prejudices, as ap- 
proaching nearly to the class of axioms ; — yet, how much 
ingenious and refined discussion has been employed, even in 
our own times, to combat the prejudices which every where 
continue to struggle against them ; and how remote does the 
period yet seem, wmen there is any probability that these 
prejudices will be completely abandoned V* The great cause 
of the long continuance of these prejudices, is the want of an 
intelligible and practical philosophy of morals. Before ordi- 
nary minds can perceive that the world is really governed by 
divine laws, it is obvious that they must become acquainted 
with, first, the nature of man, physical, animal, moral, and 
intellectual ; secondly, the relations of the different parts of 
that nature to each other ; and, thirdly, the relationship of 
the whole to God and external objects. The present treatise 
is an attempt (a very feeble and imperfect one indeed) to 
arrive, by the aid of phrenology, at a demonstration of mo- 
rality as a science. The interests dealt with in the investiga- 
tion are so elevating, and the effort itself is so delightful, that 
the attempt carries its own reward, however unsuccessful in 
its results. I am not without hope, that if phrenology as the 
science of mind, and the doctrine of the natural laws, were 
taught to the people as part of their ordinary education, the 
removal of these prejudices would be considerably accelerated. 

Assuming, then, that, among the faculties of the mind, the 
higher sentiments and intellect hold the natural supremacy, I 
shall endeavor to show that obedience to the dictates of these 
powers is rewarded with pleasing emotions in the mental 
faculties themselves, and with the most beneficial external 
consequences ; whereas disobedience is followed by depriva* 

* Prelim. Dissert, to Supp. Encjc. Brit. p. 127, 



INFRINGEMENT OF TilE MORAL LAW. 201 

tion of these emotions, by painful feelings within the mind, 
and by great external evil. 

First, Obedience is accompanied by pleasing emotions in 
the faculties. It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the cir- 
cumstance, that every propensity, sentiment, and intellectual 
faculty, when gratified in harmony with all the rest, is a 
fountain of pleasure. How many exquisite thrills of joy 
•rise from Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, Acquisitive- 
ness, Constructive ness, Love of Approbation, and Self-Esteem, 
when gratified in accordance with the moral sentiments ! 
Who that has ever poured forth the aspirations of Hope, 
Ideality, Wonder, and Veneration, directed to an object in 
whom Intellect and Conscientiousness also rejoiced, has not 
experienced the deep delight of such an exercise 1 And who 
is a stranger to the grateful pleasures attending an active 
Benevolence 1 Turning to the intellect, what pleasures are 
aflbrded by the scenery of nature, by painting, poetry, and 
music, to those who possess the combination of faculties 
suited to these objects ! And how rich a feast does philoso- 
phy yield to those who possess large reflective organs, com* 
bined with Concentrativeriess and Conscientiousness ! The 
reader is requested, therefore, to keep steadily in view, that 
these exquisite rewards are attached by the Creator to the 
active exercise of our faculties in accordance with the moral 
law ; and that one punishment, clear, obvious, and undeniable, 
inflicted on those who neglect or infringe that law, is depri- 
ration of these pleasures. This is a consideration very little 
attended to ; because mankind, in general, live in such ha- 
bitual neglect of the moral law, that they have but to a very 
partial extent experienced its rewards, and do not know the 
enjoyment they are deprived of by its infringement. Before 
its full measure can be judged of, the mind must be instructed 
in its own constitution, in that of external objects, and in the 
relationship established between it and them, and between it 
and the Creator. Until a tolerably distinct perception of these 
truths be obtained, the faculties cannot enjoy repose, nor act 
in full vigor and harmony : while, for example, our forefa- 
thers regarded the marsh fevers to which they were subjected 
in consequence of deficient draining of their fields — and the 
outrages on person and property, attendant on the w T ars wa^cd 
by the English against the Scots, or by one feudal lord against 
another, even on their own soil — not as punishments of par- 
ticular infringeTients of the organic and moral laws, to be 



202 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

removed by obedience to these laws, but as inscrutable dis- 
pensations of God's providence, which it behooved them meekly 
to endure, but not to avert — the full enjoyment which the 
moral and intellectual faculties were fairly calculated by the 
Creator to afford, could not be experienced. Benevolence 
would pine in dissatisfaction ; Veneration would flag in its 
devotions ; and Conscientiousness would suggest endless sur- 
mises of disorder and injustice in a scheme of creation under 
which such evils occurred and were left without a remedy : — 
in short, the full tide of moral, religious, and intellectual 
enjoyment could not possibly flow, until views more in ac- 
cordance with the constitution and desires of the moral facul- 
ties were obtained. The same evil still afflicts mankind to a 
prodigious extent. How is it possible for the Hindoo, Mus- 
sulman, Chinese, and savage American, while they continue 
to worship deities whose qualities outrage Benevolence, Vene- 
ration, and Conscientiousness, and while they remain in pro- 
found ignorance of almost all the Creator's natural institutions, 
in consequence of infringing which they suffer punishment 
without ceasing — how is it possible for such men to form 
even a conception of the gratifications which the moral and 
intellectual nature of man is calculated to enjoy, when exer- 
cised in harmony with the Creator's real character and insti- 
tutions? This operation of the moral law is not the less 
real because many do not recognize it. Sight is not a less 
excellent gift to those who see, because some men born blind 
have no conception of the extent of pleasure and advantage 
from which the want of it cuts them off. 

The qualities manifested by the Creator may be inferred 
from the works of creation ; but it is obvious, that, to arrive 
at the soundest views, we would need to know his institutions 
thoroughly. To a grossly ignorant people, who suffer hourly 
from transgressions of his laws, the Deity will appear infi- 
nitely more mysterious and severe than to an enlightened 
nation, who trace the principles of his government in many 
departments of his works, and who, by observing his laws, 
avoid the penalties of infringement. The character of the 
Divine Being, under the natural system, will go on rising in 
human apprehension, in exact proportion as his works shall 
be understood. The low and miserable conceptions of God 
formed by the vulgar among the Greeks and Romans, were 
the reflections of their own ignorance of natural, moral, and 
political science. The discovery and improvement of Phre- 



IVFBIXGMMSin OF THE MORAL LAW. 203 

nology must necessarily have a great effect on natural religion. 
Before phrenology was known, the moral and intellectual 
constitution of man was unascertained : in consequence, the 
relations of external nature towards it could not be compe- 
tently judged of; and, while these were involved in obscurity, 
many of the ways of Providence must have appeared myste- 
rious and severe, which in themselves were quite the reverse. 
Again, as bodily suffering and mental perplexity would bear 
a proportion to this ignorance, the character of God would 
appear to the natural eye in that condition much more un- 
favorable than it will seem after these clouds of darkness shall 
have passed away. 

Some persons, in their great concernment about a future 
life, are prone to overlook the practical direction of the mind 
in the present. When we consider the nature and objects of 
the mental faculties, we perceive that a great number of them 
have the most obvious and undeniable reference to this life : 
for example, Amativeness, Philoprogenitiveness, Combative- 
ness, Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness. Secretiveness, Cautious- 
ness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, with Size, Form, 
Coloring, Weight, Tune, Wit, and probably other faculties, 
stand in such evident relationship to this particular world, 
with its moral and physical arrangements, that if they were 
not capable of legitimate application here, it would be diffi- 
cult to assign a reason for their being bestowed on us. We 
possess also Benevolence, Veneration, Hope, Ideality, Won- 
der, Conscientiousness, and Reflecting Intellect, all of which 
appear to be particularly adapted to a higher sphere. But 
the important consideration is, that here on earth these two 
sets of faculties are combined ; and, on the same principle 
that led Sir Isaac Newton to infer the combustibility of the 
diamond, I am disposed to expect that the external world, 
when its constitution and relations shall be sufficiently under- 
stood, will be found to be in harmony with all our faculties — 
and that of course the character of the Deity, as unfolded by 
the works of creation, will more and more gratify our mora* 
and intellectual powers, in proportion as knowledge shall 
advance. The structure of the eye is admirably adapted to 
ihe laws of light, that of the ear to the laws of sound, and 
that of the muscles to the laws of gravitation ; and it would 
be strange if our mental constitution were not as wiseij 
adapted to the general order of the external world. 

The principle is universal and admits of no exception, thai 



204 CALAMITIES ARISIKG FBOM 

want of power and activity in every faculty, is attended with 
deprivation of the pleasures attendant on its vivacious exer- 
cise. He who is so deficient in Tune that he cannot dis- 
tinguish melody, is cut off from a vast source of gratification 
enjoyed by those who possess that organ in a state of vigor 
and highly cultivated ; and the same principle holds in the 
case of every other organ and faculty. Criminals and profli- 
gates of every description, therefore, from the very constitu- 
tion of their nature, are excluded from great enjoymenU 
attendant on virtue ; and this is the first natural punishment 
to which they are inevitably liable. Persons also, who are 
ignorant of the constitution of their own minds, and the rela- 
tions among external objects, not only suffer many direct 
evils on this account, but, through the consequent inactivity 
of their faculties, are, besides, deprived of many exalted en- 
joyments. The works of creation, and the character of the 
Deity, are the legitimate objects of our highest powers ; and 
hence he who is blind to their qualities, loses nearly the 
whole benefit of his moral and intellectual existence. If 
there is any one to whom these gratifications are unknown, 
or appear trivial, either he must, to a very considerable de- 
gree, be still under the dominion of the animal propensities, 
or his views of the Creator's character and institutions are 
not in harmony with the natural dictates of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect. The custom of teaching children to re- 
gard with the highest admiration the literature and history of 
the Greeks and Romans, stained with outrages on all the 
superior faculties of man, and of diverting their minds away 
from the study of the Creator and his works, has had a most 
pernicious effect on the views entertained of this world by 
many excellent and intellectual individuals. This is truly 
preferring the achievements of barbarous men to the glorious 
designs of God ; and we need not be surprised that no satis- 
faction to the moral sentiments is experienced while such a 
course of education is pursued. 

But, in the second place, as the world is arranged on the 
principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and in- 
tellect, observance of the moral law is attended with external 
advantages, and infringement of it with positive evil conse- 
quences; and fijm this constitution arises the second natural 
paent of misconduct. 

Let us trace the advantages of obedience. In the domestic 
eircle, if we preserve habitually Benevolence, Conscientious- 



INFRINGEMENT OF TUE MORAL LAW. 205 

ness, Veneration, and Intellect, supreme, it is quite undeniable 
that we shall rouse the moral and intellectual faculties of 
children, servants, and assistants, to love us, and to yield us 
willing service, obedience, and aid. Our commands will then 
be reasonable, mild, and easily executed, and the commerce 
will be that of love. With regard to our equals in society, 
what would we not give for a friend in whom we were per- 
fectly convinced of the supremacy of the moral sentiments ; 
what love, confidence, and delight, would we not repose in 
him ! To a merchant, physician, lawyer, magistrate, or an 
individual in any public employment, how invaluable would 
be the habitual supremacy of these sentiments ! The Creator 
has given different talents to different individuals, and limited 
our powers, so that we execute any work best by confining 
our attention to one department of labor — an arrangement 
which amounts to a direct institution of separate trades and 
professions. Under the natural laws, then, the manufacturer 
may pursue his calling with the entire approbation of all the 
moral sentiments, for he is dedicating his talents to supply 
the wants of his fellow men ; and how much more successful 
will he not be, if his ev^ry proceeding is accompanied by the 
desire to act benevolentl » and honestly towards those who are 
to consume and pay foi the products of his labor ! He can- 
not gratify his Acquisitiveness half so successfully by any 
other method. The same remark applies to the merchant, 
the lawyer, and the physician. The lawyer and physician 
whose whole spirits breathe a disinterested desire to consult, 
as a paramount object, the interests of their clients and pa- 
tients, not only obtain the direct reward of gratifying their 
own moral faculties, which is no slight enjoyment, but 
also reap a positive gratification to their Self-Esteem and 
Love of Approbation, in high respect and well-founded repu- 
tation — and to their Acquisitiveness, in increasing emolument, 
not grudgingly paid but willingly offered, from persons who 
feel the worth of their services bestowed. 

There are three conditions required by the moral and intel- 
lectual law, which must all be observed to insure its rewards. 
1st, The department of industry selected must l>e really 
useful to human beings: Benevolence demands this; 2d, 
The quantum of labor bestowed must bear a just proportion 
to the natural demand for the commodity produced : Intellect 
requires this ; and 3d, In our social connexions, we must im- 
peratively attend to the organic law, that different individuals 
18 



206 CALAMITIES ARISING FBOIK 

possess different developments of brain, and in consequence 
different natural talents and dispositions — and we must rely 
on each, only to the extent warranted by his natural endow- 
ment. 

If, then, an individual have received, at birth, a sound or- 
ganic constitution and favorably developed brain, and if he 
live in accordance with the physical, the organic, the moral, 
and the intellectual laws, it appears to me that, in the consti- 
tution of the world, he has received an assurance from the 
Creator, of provision for his animal wants, and high enjoy- 
ment in the legitimate exercise of his various mental powers. 

I have already observed, that before we can obey the Crea- 
tor's institutions we must know them; that the science 
Which teaches the physical laws is natural philosophy ; and 
the organic laws belong to the department of anatomy and 
physiology : and I now add, that it is the business ot the 
Political Economist to unfold the kinds of industry that are 
really necessary to the welfare of mankind, and the degrees 
of labor that will meet with a just reward. The leading 
object of political economy, as a science, is to increase enjoy- 
ment, by directing the application of industry. To attain this 
end, however, it is obviously necessary that the nature of 
man, the constitution of the physical world, and the relations 
between these, should be known. Hitherto, the knowledge 
of the former of these elementary parts has been very defi- 
cient, and, in consequence, the whole superstructure has been 
weak and unproductive, in comparison with what it may 
become when founded on a more perfect basis. Political 
Economists have never taught that the world is arranged on 
the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
intellect — that, consequently, to render man happy, his hading 
pursuits must be such as will exercise and gratify these 
powers — and that his life will necessarily be miserable, if de- 
voted entirely to the production of wealth. They have pro- 
ceeded on the notion, that the accumulation of wealth is the 
minimum bonum : but all history testifies, that national hap- 
piness does not invariably increase in proportion to national 
riches ; and until they shall perceive and teach that intelli- 
gence and morality are the foundation of all lasting prosperity, 
they will never interest the great body of mankind, nor give 
a valuable direction to their efforts. 

If the views contained in the present treatise be sound, it 
will become a leading object with future masters in that 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 207 

science, to demonstrate the necessity that civilized man should 
limit his bodily, and increase his moral and intellectual occu- 
pations, as the only means of saving himself from ceaseless 
punishment under the natural laws. 

The idea of men in general being taught natural philoso- 
phy, anatomy, physiology, political economy, and the other 
sciences that expound the natural laws, has been sneered at 
as utterly absurd and ridiculous.* But I would ask, In what 
occupations are human beings so urgently engaged, that 
they have no leisure to bestow on the study of the Creator's 
laws 1 A course of lectures on natural philosophy would 
occupy sixty or seventy hours in the delivery ; a course on 
anatomy and physiology the same ; and a pretty full course 
on phrenology can be delivered in forty hours ! These, 
twice or thrice repeated, would serve to initiate the student, 
so that he could afterwards advance in the same paths, by 
the aid of observation and books. Is life, then, so brief, and 
are our hours so urgently occupied by higher and more im- 
portant duties, that we cannot afford these pittances of time 
to learn the laws that regulate our existence 1 No ! The 
only difficulty is in obtaining the desire for knowledge ; for 
when that is attained, time will not be wanting. No idea 
can be more preposterous, than that of human beings having 
no time to study and obey the natural laws. These law* 
punish so severely when neglected, that they cause the 
offender to lose far more time in undergoing his chastisement, 
than would be requisite to obey them. A gentleman exten 
sively engaged in. business, whose nervous and digestive sys- 
tems have been impaired by neglect of the organic laws, was 
desired to walk in the open air at least one hour a day ; to 
repose from all exertion, bodily and mental, for one full hour 
after breakfast, and another full hour after dinner, because 
the brain cannot spend its energy to good purpose in thinking 
and in aiding digestion at the same time; and to practise 
moderation in diet: this last injunction he regularly observed, 

* It is pleasing to observe, that great progress has been made in 
appreciating the importance of the kind of education here recom 
mended, since the first edition of this work was published. In Edin 
burgh, an association of the industrious classes has been formed for 
obtaining instruction in useful and entertaining knowledge, and it 
has met with the greatest encouragement. Under its superintend- 
ence, lectures have been delivered on all the sciences enumerated in 
the text, to audiences consisting of both sexes, and with eminent 
success. A notice of its constitution will be found in the Appendix* 
No. X. 



20S CALAXITIES ARISING FROM 

but he laughed at the very idea of his having three hours a 
day to spare for attention to his health. The reply was, that 
the organic laws admit of no exception, and that he must 
either obey them or take the consequences ; hut that the time 
lost in enduring the punishment would be double or treble 
that requisite for obedience : and, accordingly, the fact was 
so. Instead of fulfilling an appointment, it is quite usual for 
him to send a note, perhaps at two in the afternoon, in these 
terms : — - I was so distressed with headache last night, that 
I never closed my eyes ; and to-day I am still incapable of 
being out of bed." On other occasions, he is out of bed, but 
apologizes for incapacity to attend to business, on account of 
an intolerable pain in the region of the stomach. In short, 
if the hours lost in these painful sufferings were added to- 
gether, and distributed over the days when he is able for 
duty, he would find them far outnumber those which would 
suffice for obedience to the organic laws — and with this differ- 
ence in the results : by neglect he loses both his hours and 
his enjoyment ; whereas, by obedience, he would be rewarded 
by aptitude for business, and a pleasing consciousness of 
existence. 

We shall understand the operation of the moral and intel- 
lectual laws more completely, by attending to the evils which 
arise from neglect of them. 

I. Let us consider Ixdtviduals. At present, the almost 
universal persuasion of civilized men is, that happiness con- 
sists in the possession of wealth, power, and external splen- 
dor ; objects -elated to the animal faculties and intellect much 
more than to the moral sentiments. In consequence, each 
individual ?iKs out in the pursuit of these as the chief business 
jf his life , and, in the ardor of the chase, he recognizes no 
irji'ia'.ie.i? on. the means which he may employ, except those 
srpcsrd by the municipal law. He does not perceive or 
lrhnjvrledge the existence of natural laws, determining no. 

j Ihe sources of his happiness, but the steps by which 
.nay be attained. From this moral and intellectual blind- 
aess, merchants and manufacturers, in numberless instances, 
hasten to be rich beyond the course of nature : that is to say, 
they engage in enterprizes far exceeding the extent of their 
capital and capacity ; they place their property in the hands 
of debtors, whose natural talents and morality are so low, 
that they ought never to have been entrusted with a shilling- 
they send their goods to sea without insuring them, or leave 



JXTRIXGEMEXT OF THE MORAL LAW. 209 

Ihem uninsured in their warehouses; they ask pecur'sry 
accommodation from other merchants, to enable them to 
carry on undue speculations, and become security for them 
in return, and both fall into misfortunes; or they live in 
splendor and extravagance, far beyond the limit of the 
natural return of their capital and talents, and speedily reach 
ruin as their goal. In every- one of these instances, the ca- 
lamity is obviously the consequence of infringement of the 
moral and intellectual law. The lawyer, medical practitioner; 
or probationer in the church, who is disappointed of his 
ward, will, in most cases, be found to have placed himself in 
a profession for which his natural talents and dispositions did 
not fit him, or to have pursued his vocation under the gui- 
dance chiefly of the lower propensities ; preferring selfishness 
to honorable regard for the interests of his employers. Want 
of success in these professions, appears to me to be owing, in 
a high degree, to three causes. First, the brain may be too 
small, or constitutionally lymphatic, so that the mind does 
not act with suiTicient energy to make an impression. *S'e- 
condly, some particular organs indispensably requisite to suc- 
cess, may be very small — as Language, or Causality, in a 
lawyer; deficiency of the first rendering him incapable of 
ready utterance, and that of the second, destitute of that 
intuitive sagacity, which sees at a glance the bearing of the 
facts and principles founded on by his adversary, so as to 
estimate the just inferences that follow, and to point them 
out. A lawyer, who is weak in this power, appears to his 
client like a pilot who does not know the shoals and the rocks. 
His deficiency is perceived whenever difficulty presents itself, 
and he is pronounced unfit to take charge of great interests ; 
he is then passed by, and suffers the penalties of having 
made an erroneous choice of profession. The third cause is 
predominance of the animal and selfish faculties. The client 
and the patient discriminate instinctively between the cold, 
pitiless, but pretending manner of Acquisitiveness and Love 
of Approbation, and the unpretending genuine warmth of 
Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness ; and they 
discover very speedily that the intellect inspired by the latter 
sees more clearly, and advances more successfully, their inter- 

-. than when animated only by the former. The victim 
of selfishness either never rises, or quickly sinks, wondering 
why his merits are neglected. 

In all these instances, the failure of the merchant, and th* 
14 18* 



210 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

bad success of the lawyer and physician, are the consequences 
of infringement of the natural laws, either by himself or bj 
those with whom he is connected ; so that the evil they suf- 
fer is the punishment for having failed in a great duty, not 
only to society, but to themselves. 

II. Some of the Calamities arising from infringe- 
ment of the Social Law may next be considered. 

The greatest difficulties present themselves in tracing the 
operation of the mo/al and intellectual laws, in the wide field 
of social life. An individual may be made to comprehend 
how, if he commitr an error, he should suffer a particular 
punishment; but when calamity overtakes whole classes of 
the community, eacli person absolves himself from all share 
of the blame, and i3gards himself simply as the victim of a 
general but inscrutable visitation. Let us then examine 
briefly the Social Law. 

In regarding the human faculties, we perceive that num- 
berless gratifications spring from the social state. The mus- 
cles of a single individual could not rear the habitations, 
build the ships, forge the anchors, construct the machinery, 
or, in short, produce the countless enjoyments that every 
where surround us, and which are attained in consequence 
of men being constituted so as instinctively to combine their 
powers and skill, to obtain a common end. Here, then, are 
great advantages resulting directly from the social law ; but, 
in the next place, social intercourse is the means of affording 
direct gratification to a variety of our mental faculties. If 
we lived in solitude, the propensities, sentiments, and re- 
flecting faculties, would be deprived — some of them abso- 
lutely, and others of them nearly — of all opportunities of 
gratification. The social law, then, is the source of the 
highest delights of our nature, and its institution indicates 
the greatest wisdom and benevolence towards us in the 
Creator. 

Still, however, this law does not suspend or subvert the 
laws instituted for the regulation of the conduct of man as an 
individual. If a man go to sea in a ship, the natural laws 
equire that his intellectual faculties shall have been pre- 
viously instructed in navigation, and in the features of the 
coasts and seas to be visited; that he shall know and avoid 
the shoals, currents, and eddies ; that he shall trim his can- 
vass in proportion to the gale ; and that his animal faculties 
shall be kept so much under subjection to his moral senti 



lSTFlliyGEMEXT OP THE MORAL LAW. 211 

mrnts, that he shall not abandon himself to drunkenness, 
sloth, or any animal indulgence, when he ought to be watch- 
ful at his duty. If he obey the natural laws, he will be safe; 
and if he disobey them, he may be drowned.* It is obvious 
that it must be a small vessel, and bound only on a short 
voyage, that could be managed by one man ; for he must eat 
and sleep, and he could not perform these functions and 
manage his sails at the same time. It is the interest, there- 
fore, of individuals who wish to go to sea, to avail themselves 
of the social law ; that is, to combine their powers under one 
leader. By doing so, they may sail in a larger ship, have 
more ample stores of provisions, obtain intervals for rest, and 
enjoy each other's society. If at the same time they yield 
obedience to the intellectual laws, by placing in the situation 
of captain an individual fully qualified for the duty, they will 
enjoy the reward in sailing safely and in comfort ; if they 
disregard these laws, and place in charge of the ship an indi- 
vidual whose intellectual faculties are weak, whose animal 
propensities are strong, whose moral sentiments are in abey- 
ance, and who, in consequence, habitually neglects the natu- 
ral laws, they may suffer the penalty in being wrecked. 

I know it will be objected that the crew and passengers do 
not appoint the captain ; but in every case, except impress- 
ment in the British navy, they may go into, or stay out of, a 
particular ship, according as they discover the captain to pos- 
sess the natural qualities or not. This, at present, I am 
aware, ninety-nine individuals out of an hundred never in- 
quire into ; but so do ninety -nine out of an hundred neglect 
many other natural laws, and suffer the penalty, because 
their moral and intellectual faculties have never yet been in- 
structed in the existence and effects of these, or trained to 
observe and obey them. But they have the power from na- 
ture of obeying them, if properly taught and trained ; and, 
besides, I offer this merely as an illustration of the mode of 
Deration of the social law. 

Another example may be given. By employing servants, 
the labors of life are rendered less burdensome to the master: 
but he must employ individuals who know the moral law, and 
who possess the desire to act under it ; otherwise, as a punish- 
ment for neglecting this requisite, he may be robbed, cheated, 

* I waive at present the question of storns, which he could not 
foresee, as these fall under the head of ignorance of nstural lawt 
whiri? oajr b« subsequently discovered. 



212 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

or murdered. Phrenology presents the means of observing 
this law, in a degree quite unattainable without it, by the 
facility which it affords in discovering the natuial talents and 
dispositions of individuals. 

By entering into copartnership, merchants and other per 
sons in business may extend their employment, and gain ad- 
vantages beyond those they could reap, if laboring as indi- 
viduals. But, by the natural law, each must take care that 
his partner knows, and is inclined to obey, the moral and 
intellectual laws, as the only condition on which the Creator 
will permit him securely to reap the advantages of the social 
compact If a partner in China be deficient in intellect and 
moral sentiment, another in London may be utterly ruined. 
It is said that this is an example of the innocent suffering for, 
or at least along with, the guilty ; but it is not so. It is an 
example of a person seeking to obtain the advantages of the 
social law without conceiving himself bound to obey the con- 
dition required by it ; the first of which is, that those indi- 
viduals of whose services he avails himself shall be capable 
and willing to observe the moral and intellectual laws. 

Let us now advert to the calamities which overtake whole 
classes of men, or communities, under the social law — trace 
their origin, and see how far they are attributable to infringe- 
ment of the Creator's laws. 

If I am right in representing the whole faculties of man 
as intended by the Creator to be gratified, and the moral 
sentiments and intellect as the higher and directing powers, 
with which all the natural institutions are in harmony ; it 
follows, that if large communities of men, in their systematic 
conduct,1iabitually seek the gratification of the inferior pro- 
pensities, and allow either no part, or too small and inade- 
quate a part, of their time to be devoted to the regular em- 
ployment of the higher powers, they will act in direct 
opposition to the laws of nature, and will, of course, suffer 
the punishment in sorrow and disappointment. Now, to 
confine ourselves to our own country — it is certain that, until 
within these few years, the laboring population of Britain 
were not taught that it was any part of their duty, as rational 
creatures, to restrain their propensities, so as not to multiply 
their numbers beyond the demand for their labor and the 
supply of food for their offspring ; and up to the present 
hour this most obvious and important doctrine is not admitted 
by one in a thousand, and not acted upon as a practical 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 213 

principle by one in ten thousand of those whose happiness or 
misery depends on observance of it. The doctrine of Mai- 
thus, that " population cannot go on perpetually increasing, 
without pressing on the limits of the means of subsistence, 
and that a check of some kind or other must, sooner or later, 
be opposed to it," just amounts to this — that the means of 
subsistence are not susceptible of such rapid and unlimited 
increase as the number of the people, and that, in conse- 
quence, the amative propensity must be restrained by reason, 
otherwise population will be checked by misery. This princi- 
ple is in accordance with the views of human nature main- 
tained in the present treatise, and applies to all the faculties. 
Thus, Philoprogenitiveness, when indulged in opposition to 
reason, leads to spoiling children, which is followed directly 
by misery both to them and to their parents. Acquisitiveness, 
when uncontrolled by reason and morality, leads to avarice 
or theft, and these again carry suffering in their train. 

But so little are such views attended to, that the lives of 
the inhabitants of Britain generally are devoted to the acqui- 
sition of wealth, of power and distinction, or of animal 
pleasure: in other words, the great object of the laboring 
classes, is to live and gratify the inferior propensities ; of the 
mercantile and manufacturing population, to gratify Acquisi- 
tiveness and Self-Esteem ; of the more intelligent class ol 
gentlemen, to gratify Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation, 
by attaining political, literary, or philosophical eminence ; and 
of another portion, to gratify Love of Approbation by supre- 
macy in fashion — and these gratifications are sought by 
means not in accordance with the dictates of the higher 
sentiments, but by the joint aid of the intellect and animal 
powers. If the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intel- 
lect be the natural law, then, as often observed, every circum- 
stance connected with human life must be in harmony with 
it : that is to say, first, After rational restraint on population, 
and proper use made of machinery, such moderate labor as 
will leave ample time for the systematic exercise of the higher 
powers will suffice to provide for human wants ; and, secondly, 
If this exercise be neglected, and the time which ought to be 
dedicated to it be employed in labor to gratify the propensities, 
direct evil will ensue — and this accordingly appears to me to 
be really the result. 

By means of machinery, and the aids derived from science, 
the ground can be cultivated, and every imaginable necessary 



214 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

and luxury produced in ample abundance, at a moderate ex- 
penditure of labor by any population not in itself supera- 
bundant. If men were to stop whenever they had reached 
this point, and to dedicate the residue of each day to moral 
and intellectual pursuits, the consequence would be the exist- 
ence of ready and steady, because not overstocked markets. 
Labor, pursued till it provide abundance, but not superfluity 
would meet with a certain and just reward, and would also yield 
a vast increase of happiness ; for no joy equals that which springs 
from the moral sentiments and intellect excited by the con- 
templation, pursuit, and observance of the Creator's laws. 
Farther, morality would be improved ; for men being happy, 
would become less vicious : and, lastly, there would be im- 
provement in the organic, moral, and intellectual capabilities 
of the race ; for the active moral and intellectual organs of 
the parents would tend to increase the volume of these in 
their offspring — so that each generation would start not only 
with greater stores of acquired knowledge than those which 
its predecessors possessed, but with higher natural capabilities 
of turning them to account. 

Before merchants and manufacturers can be expected to 
act in this manner, a great change must be effected in their 
sentiments and perceptions ; but so was a striking revolution 
effected in the ideas and practices of the tenantry west of 
Edinburgh, when they removed the stagnant pools between 
each ridge of land, and banished ague from their district. If 
any reader will compare the state of Scotland, during the 
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, correctly and 
spiritedly represented in Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grand- 
jather, with its present condition in regard to knowledge, 
morality, religion, and the comparative ascendency of the 
rational over the animal part of our nature, he will perceive 
so great an improvement in later times, that the commence- 
ment of the millenium itself, five or six hundred years hence, 
would scarcely be a greater advance beyond the present, than 
the present is beyond the past. If the laws of the Creator 
be really what are here represented, it is obvious that, were 
they taught as elementary truths to every class of the com- 
munity, and were the sentiment of Veneration called in to 
enforce obedience to them, a set of new motives and princi- 
ples would be brought into play, calculated to accelerate the 
change ; especially if it were seen — what, in the next place, 
I proceed to show — that the consequences of neglecting these 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 215 

laws are the most serious visitations of suffering that can well 
be imagined. If the views advocated in this work be correct, 
the system on which the manufactures of Britain are at 
present conducted, is as great an abberration from the laws 
of nature as any recorded in the history of the world. It 
implies not only that the vast body of the people shall for ' 
ever remain in a condition little superior to that of mere 
working animals, in order that, by means of cheap labor, our 
traders may undersell the merchants of all other nations 
but also that our manufactures and commerce shall enjoy an 
indefinite extension — this being essential to their prosperity 
as thev are now conducted, although in the nature of things 
impossible. On the 13th of May, 1830, Mr. Slaney, M. P., 
called the attention of the House of Commons to " the increase 
which had taken place in the number of those employed in 
manufacturing and mechanical occupations, as compared 
with the agricultural class." He stated, that " in England, 
the former, as compared with the latter, were 6 to 5 in 1801 ; 
they were as 8 to 5 in 1821 ; and, taking the increase of popu- 
lation to have proceeded in the same ratio, they were now 
as 2 to 1. In Scotland the increase had been still more extra- 
ordinary. In mat country they were as 5 to 6 in 1801; as 9 to 
6 in 1821; and now they were as 2 to 1. The increase in the 
general population during the last twenty years had been 30 
per cent. ; in the manufacturing population it had been 40 per 
cent. ; in Manchester, Coventry, Liverpool, and Birmingham, 
the increase had been 50 per cent.; in Leeds it had been 54 
per cent. ; in Glasgow it had been 100 per cent." Here we per- 
ceive that a vast population has been called into existence and 
trained to manufacturing industry. I do not doubt that the skill 
and labor of this portion of the people have greatly contributed 
to the wealth of the nation ; but I fear that tlie happiness of the 
laborious individuals who have conferred 'mis boon, has not 
kept pace with the riches which they have created. The 
causes of this circumstance appear to be tl e following : — 

Several millions of human beings have been trained to 
manufactures, and are unfit for any other occupation. In 
consequence of the rapid increase of their numbers, and of 
vast improvements in machinery, the supply of labor has for 
many years outstripped the demand for it, and wages have 
fallen ruinously low By a coincidence which at first sight 
appears unfortunate, much of the machinery of modern in- 
vention may be managed by children. The parent, who, by 



21$ CALAMITIES ARISING FBOM 

his own labor for twelve hours a day, is able to earn onlj 
seven shillings a week, adds to his income one shilling and 
sixpence or two shillings a week, fpr each child whom he can 
send to the manufactory ; and by the united wages of the 
family, a moderate subsistence may be eked out. Both pa- 
rents and children, however, are reduced to a hopeless condi- 
tion of toil ; for their periods of labor are so long, and their 
remuneration is so small, that starvation stares each of them 
in the face when they either relax from exertion or cease to 
live in combination. Mental culture and moral and intel- 
lectual enjoyment are excluded, and their place is supplied by 
penury and labor. Dr. Chalmers reports, that, in our great 
towns, whole masses of this class of the people are living in 
profound ignorance and practical heathenism. The system 
tends constantly to increase the evils of which it is the source. 
Young persons, when they arrive at manhood, find them- 
selves scarcely able to subsist by their individual exertions ; 
whereas, if they can add the scanty income of three or four 
children to their own, their condition is in some degree im- 
proved. House*rent, and the expenses of furniture and fuel, 
are not. increased by the wants, in proportion to the contribu- 
tions, of the young. Adults are thus tempted — nay, almost 
driven by necessity — to contract early marriages, to rear a 
numerous offspring, devoted to the same employments with 
themselves, and in this way to add to the supply of labor, 
already in excess. The children grow up, and in their turn 
follow the same course ; and thus, however widely the manu- 
factures of Britain may have extended, a still farther and 
indeed an indefinite extension of them seems to be demanded; 
for the system produces a constantly increasing, yet ignorant, 
starving, and miserable population, more than adequate to 
supply all the labor that can be profitably expended. The 
consequence is, that markets are overstocked with produce; 
prices first fall ruinously low ; the operatives are then thrown 
idle, and left in destitution, till the surplus produce of their 
brmerly excessive labor, and perhaps something more, are 
onsumed : after this, prices rise too high in consequence of 
the supply falling rather below the demand ; the laborers 
then resume their toil, on their former system of excessive 
exertion ; they again over stock the market, and are again 
thrown idle and suffer dreadful misery. 

In 1825-6-7, this operation of the natural laws was strik- 
ingly exhibited ; large bodies of starving and unemployed 



INFRINGEMENT OF THL MORAL LAW. 217" 

laborers were supported on charity. How many hours did 
they not stand idle, and how much of excessive toil would 
not these hours have relieved, if distributed over the periods 
when they were overworked ! The results of that excessive 
exertion were seen in the form of untenanted houses and 
of shapeless piles of goods decaying in warehouses — in short, 
in every form in which misapplied industry could go to ruin 
These observations are strikingly illustrated by the following 
official report : — 

" State of Unemployed Operatives resident in Edinburgh^ 
who are supplied with work by a Committee constituted 
for that purpose, according to a list made up on Wed- 
nesday, the 14th March, 1827. 

" The number of unemployed operatives who have been re- 
mitted by the Committee for work, up to the 14th of 
March, are 1481 

"And the number of cases they have rejected, after 
having been particularly investigated, for being bad 
characters, giving in false statements, or being only 
a short time out of work, &c. &c are 446 

Making together, 1927 

" Besides these, several hundred have been rejected by the 
Committee, as, from the applicants' own statements, they 
were not considered as cases entitled to receive relief, anal 
were not, therefore, remitted for investigation. 

" The wages allowed is 5s. per week, with a peck of meal 
to those who have families. Some youths are only allowed 
3s. of wages. 

" The particular occupations of those sent to work are a« 
follows: — 242 masons, 643 laborers, 66 joiners, 19 plasterers, 
76 sawyers, 19 slaters, 45 smiths, 40 painters, 36 tailors, 55 
shoemakers, 20 gardeners, 229 various trades. Total 1481." 

Edinburgh is not a manufacturing city ; and if so much 
misery existed in it in proportion to its population, what must 
have been the condition of Glasgow, Manchester, and other 
manufacturing towns 1 

Here, then, the Creator's laws show themselves paramount, 
even when men set themselves systematically to infringe 
them. He intended the human race, under the moral law, 
not to pursue Acquisitiveness excessively, but to labor only a 
certain and a moderate portion of their lives- and although 
A 19 



*Z)9 CALAMITIES ARISING FHOM 

they do their utmost to defeat this intention, they cannot suc- 
ceed : they are constrained to remain idle, while their surplus 
produce is consuming as many days and hours as would havo 
served for the due exercise of their moral and intellectual 
faculties, and the preservation of their health, if they had 
dedicated them regularly to these ends from day to day, as 
time passed over their heads. But their punishment pro- 
ceeds: the extreme exhaustion of nervous and muscular 
energy, with the absence of all moral and intellectual excite- 
ment, create the irresistible craving for the stimulus of ardent 
spirits which distinguishes the laboring population of the 
present age ; this calls into predominant activity the organs 
of the animal propensities ; these descend to the children by 
the law already explained ; increased crime, and a deterio- 
rating population, are the results ; and the moral and intel- 
lectual incapacity for arresting the eviis becomes greater with 
the lapse of every generation. 

According to the principles of the present treatise, what 
are called by commercial men " times of prosperity ," are sea- 
sons of the greatest infringement of the natural laws, and 
precursors of great calamities. Times are not reckoned pros- 
perous, unless all the industiious population is employed 
during the whole day (hours of eating and sleeping only 
excepted) in the production of ivealth. This is a dedication 
of their whole lives to the service of the propensities, and 
must necessarily terminate in punishment, if the world is 
constituted on the principle of the supremacy of the highei 
powers. 

This truth has already been illustrated more than once in 
the history of commerce. The following is a recent example. 

By the combination laws, workmen were punishable for 
uniting to obtain a rise of wages, when an extraordinary de- 
mand occurred for their labor. These laws, being obviously 
unjust, were at length repealed. In the summer and autumn 
of 1825, however, commercial men conceived themselves to 
have reached the highest point of prosperity, arjd the demand 
f jr labor was unlimited. The operatives availed themselves 
af the opportunity to better their condition, formed extensive 
combinations, and, because their demands were not complied 
with, struck work, and continued idle for months in suc- 
cession. The master manufacturers clamored against the new 
law, and complained that the country would be ruined, if 
combinations were not again declared illegal, and suppressed 



IXFRIXGLMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 210 

by force. According to the principles expounded in this 
work, the just law must from the first have been the ?nosf 
beneficial for all parties affected by it; and the result amply 
confirmed this idea. Subsequent events proved that the extra- 
ordinary demand for laborers in 1825 was entirely factitious, 
fostered by an overwhelming issue of bank paper, much of 
which ultimately turned out o be worthless; in short, that, 
during the combinations, the master manufacturers were en- 
gaged in an extensive system of speculative over production 
and that the combinations of the workmen presented a natura 
check to this erroneous proceeding. The ruin that overtook 
the masters in 1S26 arose from their having accumulated, 
under the influence of unbridled Acquisitiveness, vast stores 
of commodities which were not required by society ; and to 
have compelled the laborers, by force, to manufacture more 
at their bidding, would obviously have been to aggravate the 
evil. It is a well known fact, accordingly, that those masters 
whose operatives most resolutely refused to work, and who on 
this account clamored most loudly against the law, were the 
greatest gainers in the end. Their stocks of goods were sold 
off at high prices during the speculative period : and when 
the revulsion came, instead of being ruined by the fall of 
property, they were prepared, with their capitals at command, 
to avail themselves of the depreciation, to make new and 
highly profitable investments. Here again, therefore, we 
perceive the law of justice vindicating itself, and benefiting 
by its operation even those individuals who blindly denounced 
it as injurious to their interests. A practical faith in the 
doctrine that the world is arranged by the Creator in harmony 
with the moral sentiments and intellect, would be of un- 
speakable advantage to both rulers and subjects ; for they 
would then be able to pursue with greater confidence the 
course dictated by moral rectitude, convinced that the result 
would prove beneficial, even although, when they took the 
first step, they could not distinctly perceive by what means 
Dugald Stuart remarks that Fenelon, in his Adientures oj 
Telentachus, makes Mentor anticipate some of the profoundest 
and most valuable doctrines of modern political economy, re- 
specting the principles and advantages of free trade, merelv 
by causing him to utter the simple dictates of benevolence and 
justice in regard to commerce. In Fenelon's day, such ideas 
were regarded as fitted only for adorning sentimental novels 
or romances ; but they have since been discovered to be not 



220 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

only philosophical truths, hut most beneficial practical max 
iras. This is the case apparently, because the world is really 
arranged on the principle of the supremacy of the moral and 
intellectual faculties, so that, when men act agreeably to their 
dictates, the consequences, although they cannot all be an- 
ticipated, naturally tend towards good. 

In the whole system of the education and treatment of the 
laboring population, the laws of the Creator, such as I have 
now endeavored to expound them, are neglected or infringed 
Life with them is spent to so great an extent in labor, that 
their moral and intellectual powers are stinted of exercise 
and gratification ; and mental enjoyments are chiefly those 
afforded by the animal propensities; — in other words, their 
existence is too little rational', they are rather organized ma- 
chines than moral and intellectual beings. The chief duty 
performed by their higher faculties is not to afford predomi- 
nant sources of enjoyment, but to communicate so much 
intelligence and honesty, as to enable them to execute their 
labors with fidelity and skill. I speak, of course, of the great 
body of the laboring population : there are many individual 
exceptions, who possess higher attainments ; and I mean no 
disrespect to any portion of this most useful and deserving 
class of society: on the contrary, I represent their condition 
in what appears to me to be a true light, only with a view to 
excite them to amend it. 

Does human nature, then, admit of such a modification of 
the employments and habits of this class, as to raise them to 
the condition of beings whose chief pleasures shall be de- 
rived from their rational natures 1 — that is, creatures whos* 
bodily powers and animal propensities shall be subservient t» 
their moral and intellectual faculties, and who shall derive 
their leading enjoyment from the latter. To attain this end- 
it would not be necessary that they should cease to labor ; on 
the contrary, the necessity of labor to the enjoyment of life if 
imprinted in strong characters on the structure of man. Thd 
Osseous, muscular, and nervous systems of the body, all re- 
quire exercise as a condition of health ; while the digestive 
and sanguiferous apparatus rapidly fall into disorder, if due 
exertion is neglected. Exercise of the body is labor ; and 
labor directed to a useful purpose is more beneficial to the 
corporeal organs, and also more pleasing to the mind, than 
when undertaken for no end but the preservation of health.* 

* See Dr. Combe's Principles of Phrenology, 3d edition, pp. 135 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 221 

Commerce is rendered advantageous by the Creator, because 
different climates yield different productions. Agriculture, 
manufactures, and commerce, therefore, are adapted to man'* 
nature, and I am not their enemy. But they are not the ends 
of human existence, even on earth. Labor is beneficial to 
the whole human economy, and it is a mere delusion to regard 
it ns in itself an evil; but the great principle is, that it must 
be moderate in both severity and duration, in order that men 
may enjoy and not be oppressed by it. I say enjoy it ; be- 
cause moderate exertion is pleasure — and it is only labor 
carried to excess, which has given rise to the common opinion 
that retirenient from active industry is the goal of happiness. 
It may be objected that a healthy and vigorous man is not 
oppressed by ten or twelve hours labor a day ; and I grant 
that, if he be well fed, his physical strength may not be so 
much exhausted by this exertion as to cause him pain. But 
this is regarding him merely as a working animal. My pro- 
position is, that after ten or twelve hours of muscular exer- 
tion a day, continued for six days in the week, the laborer is 
not in a fit condition for that active exercise of his moral and 
intellectual faculties which alone constitutes him a rational 
being. The exercise of these powers depends on the condi- 
tion of the brain and nervous system ; and these are ex- 
hausted and deadened by too much muscular exertion. The 
foxhunter and ploughman fall asleep when they sit within 
doors and attempt to read or think. The truth of this propo- 
sition is demonstrable on physiological principles, and is sup- 
ported by general experience ; nevertheless, the teachers of 
mankind have too often neglected it. The first change, 
therefore, must be to limit the hours of labor, and tft dedicate 
a portion of time daily to the exercise of the mental faculties. 
So far from this limitation being unattainable, it appears to 
me that the progress of arts, sciences, and society, is rapidly 
forcing its adoption. Ordinary observers appear to conceive 
man's chief end, in Britain, at least, to manufacture hard- 
ware, broadcloth, and cotton goods, for the use of the whole 
world, and to store up wealth. They forget that the same 
impulse which inspires the British with so much ardor in 
manufacturing, will sooner or later inspire other nations 
also ; and that, if all Europe shall follow our example, and 
employ efficient machinery and a large proportion of their 
population in our branches of industry, which they are fast 
doing, the four quarters of the globe will at length be deluged 
19* 



222 CALAMITIES ARISING FHOM 

with manufactured goods, only part of which will be required. 
When this state of things shall arrive — and in proportion as 
knowledge and civilization are diffused, it will approach — 
men will be compelled by dire necessity to abridge their toil, 
because excessive labor will not be remunerated. The ad- 
mirable inventions which are the boast and glory of civilized 
men, are believed by many persons to be at this moment 
adding to the misery and degradation of the people. Power 
looms, steam carriages, and steam ships, it is asserted, have 
all hitherto operated directly in incieasing the hours of ex 
ertion, and abridging the reward of the laborer ! Can we be- 
lieve that God has bestowed on us the gift of an almost 
creative power, solely to increase the wretchedness of the 
many, and minister to the luxury of the few ? Impossible ? 
The ultimate effect of mechanical inventions on human so- 
ciety appears to be not yet divined. I hail them ac the grand 
instruments of civilization, by giving leisure to thf great mass 
of the people to cultivate and enjoy their moral, intellectual, 
and religious powers. 

One requisite to enable man to follow pursuits connected 
with his higher endowments, is provision for the wants of his 
animal nature, viz. food, raiment, and comfortable lodging. 
It is clear that muscular power, intellect, and mechanical 
ability, have been conferred on him, with the design that he 
should build houses, plough fields, and fabricate commodities. 
But assuredly we have no warrant from reason or revelation 
for believing that any portion of the people are bound to dedi- 
cate their whole lives and energies, aided by all mechanical 
discoveries, to these ends, as their proper business, to the ne- 
glect of the study of the works and will of the Creator. Has 
man been permitted to discover the steam engine, and apply 
it in propelling ships on the ocean and carriages on railways, 
in spinning, weaving, and forging iron — and has he been 
gifted with intellect to discover the astonishing powers of phy- 
sical agents, such as are revealed by chemistry and mechan- 
ics — only that he may be enabled to build more houses, weave 
more cloth, and forge more iron, without any direct regard 
to his moral and intellectual improvement 1 If an individual, 
unaided by animal or mechanical power, had wished to travel 
from Manchester to Liverpool, a distance of thirty miles, he 
would have been under the necessity of devoting ten or twelve 
hours of his time, and considerable muscular energy to the 
task. When roads and carriages were constructed, and horses 



IXFltlXGKMKN'T OF THE MORAL LAW. 2-3 

trained, he could, by their assistance, have accomplished the 
same journey in four hours, with little fatigue ; and now, when 
railways and steam engines have been successfully completed, 
ne may travel that distance, without any bodily fatigue what* 
ever, in an hour and a half: and I ask, for what purpose has 
Providence bestowed the nine or ten hours, which are thus 
set free as spare time to the individual ] I humbly answer — 
that he may be enabled to cultivate his moral, intellectual, and 
eligious nature. Again, before steam engines were applied 
.o spinning and weaving, a human being would have needed 
to labor perhaps for a month, in order to produce linen, wool 
len, and cotton cloth, necessary to cover his own person for a 
year ; or, in case of a division of labor, a twelfth part of the 
population would have required to be constantly engaged in 
this employment : by the application of steam, the same ends 
may be gained in a day. I repeat the inquiry — For what 
purpose has Providence bestowed the twenty-nine days out 
of the month, set free by the invention of the steam engine 
and machinery ] These proportions are not stated as statisti- 
cally correct, but as mere illustrations of my proposition, that 
every discovery in natural science, and invention in me- 
chanics, has a direct tendency to increase the leisure of man, 
and to enable him to provide for his physical wants with less 
I a bono us exertion. 

The question recurs — Whether is it the object of Provi- 
dence, in thus favoring the human race, to enable or.Iy a por- 
tion of them to enjoy the highest luxuries, while the mass 
shall continue laboring animals ; or is it his intention to ena- 
ble all to cultivate and enjoy their national nature ] 

In proportion as mechanical inventions shall be generally 
diffused over the world, they will increase the powers of pro- 
duction to such an extent, as to supply, by moderate labor, 
every want of man ; and then the great body of the people 
will find themselves in possession of reasonable leisure, in 
spite of every exertion to avoid it. Great misery will proba- 
bly be suffered in persevering in the present course of action, 
before their eyes shall be opened to this result. The first ef- 
fect of these stupendous mechanical inventions threatens to 
be to accumulate great wealth in the hands of a few, with- 
out proportionally abridging the toil, or greatly adding to the 
comforts, of the many. This process of elevating a part of 
the community to affluence and power, and degrading the 
vest, thieatens to proceed till the disparity of condition shall 



224 CALAMITIES ARISING FIIOM 

become intolerable to both, the laborer being utterly oppress 
ed, and the higher classes harassed by insecurity. Then.. 
probably, the ideas may occur, that the real benefit of physi- 
cal discovery is to give leisure to the mass of the people, and 
that leisure for mental improvement is the first condition of 
true civilization, knowledge being the second. The scene of 
human nature will enable men at length to profit by ex- 
emption from excessive toil; and it may be hoped that, in 
course of time, the notion that man is really a rational crea- 
ture, may meet with general countenance, and that sincere 
attempts may be made to render all ranks prosperous and 
happy, by institutions founded on the basis of the superioi 
faculties. 

The same means will lead to the realization of practical 
Christianity. An individual whose active existence is en- 
grossed by mere bodily labor, or by the persuits of gain or 
ambition, lives under the predominance of faculties that do 
not produce the perfect Christian character. The true prac- 
tical Christian possesses a vigorous and enlightened intellect, 
and moral affections glowing with gratitude to God and love 
to man ; but how can the people at large be enabled to realize 
this condition of mind, if stimulus for the intellect and the 
nobler sentiments be excluded by the daily routine of their 
occupations 1 

In some districts of England, the operatives lately demand- 
ed an abridgement of labor without abatement of wages. 
This project was unjust, and proved unsuccessful. They 
ought to have given up first one hour's labor, and the price 
of it, and waited till the increase of capital and of demand 
brought up wages to their former rate, which, if they had re- 
strained population, would certainly have happened. They 
ought to have then abated a second hour, submitting again to 
a reduction, and again waited for a reaction ; and so on, till 
they had limited their labor to eight or ten hours a day. The 
change must be gradual, and the end must be obtained by 
Wioral means, else it will never be accomplished at all. 

The objection has been stated, that, even in the most im 
proved condition of the great body of the people, there will 
still be a considerable proportion of them so deficient in ta- 
lent, so incapable of improvement, and so ignorant, that their 
labor will be worth little ; that, as they must obtain subsis- 
tence, no alternative will be left to them but to make up by 
protracted periods of exertion what thev want ixi skill ; and 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 225 

that their long continued labor, furnished at a cheap rate, 
will effect all the classes above them, and indeed prevent the 
views now taken from ever being generally realized. This 
objection resolves itself into the proposition, That the people 
have been destined by the Creator to be laboring animals, 
and that, from their inherent mental defects, they are incapa- 
ble generally of being raised to any more honorable station ; 
which is just the great point at issue between the old and the 
new philosophy. If mankind at large (for the industrious 
classes constitute so very great a majority of the race, that I 
may be allowed to speak of them as the whole) had been in- 
tended for mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, I do 
not believe that the moral and intellectual faculties which 
they unquestionably posses would have been bestowed on 
them ; and as they do enjoy the rudiments of all the feelings 
and capacities which adorn the highest of the race, and as 
these faculties themselves are improvable, I do not subscribe 
to the doctrine of the permanent incapacity of the race. I 
consider the operatives, in successive generations, quite capa- 
ble of learning to act as rational beings ; and that whenever 
the great majority of them shall have acquired a sense of the 
true dignity of their nature, and a relish for the enjoyments 
afforded by their higher capacities, they will become capable 
of so regulating the supply of labor in reference to the de- 
mand, as to obtain the means of subsistence in return for 
moderate exertion. In fine, I hope that few of the imbeciles 
alluded to in the objection will exist, and that these few will 
be directed and provided for by the multitude of generous and 
enlightened minds which will exist around them. 

At the same time, there is great force in the objection, con- 
sidered in reference to the present and several succeeding 
generations. In throwing out these views, I embrace centu- 
ries of time. I see the slow progress of the human race in 
the past, and do not anticipate miracles in the future. If a 
sound principal is developed — one having its roots in nature 
—there is a certainty that it will wax strong and bear fruit 
in due season ; but that season, from the character of the 
plant, is a distant one. All who aim at benefiting mankind 
ought to keep this truth constantly in view. Almost every 
scheme is judged of by its effects on the living generation , 
whereas no great fountain of happiness ever flowed clear aJ 
first, or yielded its full sweets to the generation which di» 
cove-ed it. 

15 



226 CALAMITIES ARISING FR031 

It is now an established principle in political economy, that 
government ought not to interfere with industry. This max 
im was highly necessary when governors were grossly ignorant 
of all the natural laws which regulate production and the 
private conduct of men ; because their enactments, in general, 
were then absurd — they often did much harm, and rarely 
good. " Men," says Lord Karnes, in reference to the Eng- 
lish poor law, " will always be mending : What a confused 
jumble do they make, when they attempt to mend the laws 
of Nature ! Leave Nature to her own operations ; she un- 
derstands them the best."* But if the science of human na- 
ture were once fully and clearly developed, it is probable that 
this rule might, with great advantage, be relaxed, and that 
the legislature might considerably accelerate improvements, 
by adding the constraining authority of human laws to en- 
actments already proclaimed by the Creator. Natural laws 
do exist, and the Creator punishes if they are not obeyed. 
The evils of life are these punishments. Now, if the great 
body of intelligent men in any state saw clearly that a course 
of action persued by the ill informed of their fellow subjects 
was the source of continual suffering, not only to the evil 
doers themselves, but to the whole community, it appears to 
me allowable that they should stop its continuance by legis- 
lative enactment. If the majority of the middle classes resi- 
dent in towns were to petition Parliament, at present, to 
order shops in general to be shut at eight o'clock, or even at 
an earlier hour, so as to allow time for the cultivation of the 
rational faculties of the men and women engaged in them, it 
would be no stretch of power to give effect to the petition : 
that is to say, no evil would ensue, although the ignorant, arid 
avaricious were prevented by law from continuing ignorant, 
and forcing all their competitors in trade to resemble them in 
their defects. If the Creator have so constituted the world 
that men may execute all necessary business, and still have 
time to spare for the cultivation of their rational faculties, any 
enactment of the legislature calculated to facilitate arrange- 
ment for accomplishing both ends would be beneficial and suc- 
cessful, because it was in accordance with nature; although 
the prejudiced and ignorant of the present generation would 
complain, and probably resist it. This principle of interfer- 
ence would go much farther ; its only limits seem to me to bo 

* Sketches, B. ii. Sk. 10. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MOHAL LAW. 22*3 

the boundaries of tne real knowledge of nature : as long as the 
legislature enacts in conformity with nature, the result will be 
successful. At present, ignorance is too extensive and preva- 
lent to authorize Parliament to venture far. From indication* 
which already appear, however, I think it probable that the 
laboring classes will ere long recognize Phrenology, and tbo 
natural laws, as deeply interesting to themselves; and when 
ever their minds shall be opened to rational views of their own 
constitution as men, and their condition as members of society 
I venture to predict that they will devote themselves to im- 
provement, with a zeal and earnestness that in a few genera- 
tions will change the aspect of their class. 

The consequences of the present system of departing from 
the moral law, on the middle orders of the community, are in 
accordance with its effects on the lower. Uncertain gains — 
continual fluctuations in fortune — the absence of all reliance, 
in their pursuits, on moral and intellectual principles — a gamb- 
ling spirit — an insatiable appetite for wealth — alternate ex- 
travagant joys of excessive prosperity and bitter miseries of 
disappointed ambition — render the lives of manufacturers and 
merchants, to too great an extent, scenes of mere vanity and 
vexation of spirit. As the chief occupations of the British 
nation, manufactures and commerce are disowned by reason; 
for, as now conducted, they imply the permanent degradation 
of the great mass of the people. They already constitute Eng- 
land's weakness; and, unless they shall be regulated by sounder 
views than those which at present prevail, they will involve 
their population in unspeakable misery. The oscillations of 
fortune, which almost the whole of the middle ranks of Britain 
experience, in consequence of the alternate depression and 
elevation of commerce and manufactures, are attended with 
extensive and severe individual suffering. Deep though often 
silent agonies pierce the heart, when ruin js seen stealing, by 
6low but certain steps, on a young and helpless family ; the 
mental struggle often undermines the parent's health, and 
conducts him prematurely to the grave. No death can be ima- 
gined more painful than that which arises from a broken spirit, 
robbed of its treasures, disappointed in its ambition, and con- 
scious of failure in the whole scheme of life. The best affec- 
tions of the soul are lacerated and agonized at the prospect of 
feaving their dearest objects to struggle, without provision, in 
a cold and selfish world. Thousands of the middle ranks in 
Britain unfortunately experience these miseries in every pass- 



228 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ing year. Nothing is more essential to human happiness than 
fixed principles of action, on which we can rely for our presen 
safety and future welfare ; and the Creator's laws, when seen 
and followed, afford this support and delight to our faculties 
in the highest degree. It is one, not the least, of the punish- 
ments that overtake the middle classes for neglect of these 
laws, that they do not, as a permanent condition of mind, feei 
secure and internally at peace w T ith themselves. In days o 
prosperity, they continue to fear adversity. They live in a 
constant struggle with fortune ; and when the excitement ot 
business has subsided, vacuity and craving are felt within. 
These proceed from the moral and intellectual faculties calling 
aloud for exercise ; but, through ignorance of human nature, 
either pure idleness, gossiping conversation, fashionable amuse- 
ments, or intoxicating liquors, are resorted to, and with these 
a vain attempt is made to fill up the void of life. I know that 
this class ardently desires a change that would remove the 
miseries here described, and will zealously co-operate in diffu- 
sing knowledge, by means of which alone it can be introduced. 

The punishment which overtakes the higher classes is equal- 
ly obvious. If they do not engage in some active pursuit, so 
as to give scope to their energies, they suffer the eviJs of en- 
nui, Laorbid irritability, and excessive relaxation of the func- 
tions of mind and body ; which carry in their train more suf- 
fering than even that which is entailed on the operatives by 
excessive labor. If they pursue ambition in the senate or the 
field, in literature or philosophy, their real success is in exact 
proportion to the approach which they make to observance of 
the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect. Sully, 
Franklin, *and Washington, may be contrasted with Sheridan 
and Bonaparte, as illustrations. Sheridan and Napoleon did 
not, systematically, pursue objects sanctioned by the higher 
sentiments and intellect, as the end of their exertions ; and no 
person who is a judge of human emotions can read the history 
of their lives, and consider what must have passed within their 
minds, without coming to the conclusion, that even in their 
most brilliant moments of external prosperity the canker was 
gnawing within, and that there was no moral relish of the 
present, or reliance on the future, but a mingled tumult of in- 
ferior propensities and intellect, carrying with it an habitual 
feeling of unsatisfied desires. 

Let us now consider the effect of the moral law on nationa* 
prosperity. 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MOHIL LAW. 129 

If the Creator has constituted the world in harmony with 
the dictates of the moral sentiments, the highest prosperity of 
each particular nation should he thoroughly compatible with 
that of every other: that is to say, England, by sedulously cul- 
tivating her own soil, pursuing her own courses of industry, 
founding her internal institutions and her external relations on 
the principles of Benevolence, Veneration, and Justice, which 
imply abstinence from wars of aggression, from conquest, and 
from all selfish designs of commercial monopoly — would be in 
the highest condition of prosperity and enjoyment that nature 
admits of; and every step that she deviated from these princi- 
ples, would carry an inevitable punishment along with it. The 
same statement may be made relative to France and every 
other nation. According to this principle, also, the Creator 
should have conferred on each nation such peculiar advantages 
of soil, climate, situation, or genius, as would enable it to carry 
on amicable intercourse with its fellow states, in a beneficial 
exchange of the products peculiar to each; so that the higher 
one nation rose in morality, intelligence, and riches, so much 
the more estimable and valuable it ought to become as a neigh- 
bor to all the surrounding states. This is so obviously the 
real constitution of nature, that proof of it would be superfluous. 

England, however, as a nation, has set this law at absolute 
defiance. She has led the way in taking the propensities as 
her guides, in founding her laws and institutions on them, and 
in following them out in her practical conduct. England 
placed restrictions on trade, and carried them to the greatest 
height; she conquered colonies, and ruled them in the full 
spirit of selfishness ; she encouraged lotteries, fostered the slave 
trade, and carried paper money and the most a variolous spirit 
of manufacturing and speculating in commerce to their highest 
pitch ; she defended corruption in Parliament, and distributed 
churches and seats on the bench of justice, on principles purely 
selfish ; all in direct opposition to the supremacy of the moral 
law. If the world had been created in harmony with the pre- 
dominance of the animal faculties, England would have been 
a most felicitous nation ; but as the reverse is the case, it was 
natural that a severe national retribution should follow these 
departures from the Divine institutions — and grievous accord- 
ingly has been, and I fear, will be, the punishment. 

The principle which regulates national chastisement is, that 
the precise combination of faculties which leads to the trans- 
gression, carries in its train the punishment Nations are un- 
20 



230 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

der the moral and intellectual law, as well as individuals. A 
carter who waif starves his horse, and unmercifully beats it, to 
supply, by the stimulus of pain, the vigor that nature intended 
to flew from abundance of food, may be supposed to practise 
this barbarity with impunity in this world, if he evade the eye 
of the police ; but this is not the case. The hand of Providence 
reaches him by a direct punishment: he fails in his object; for 
blows cannot supply the vigor which, by the constitution of the 
horse, will flow only from sufficiency of wholesome food. In 
his conduct, he manifests excessive Acquisitiveness and De- 
structiveness, with deficient Benevolence, Veneration, Justice, 
and Intellect ; and he cannot reverse this character, by merely 
averting his eyes and his hand from the horse. He carries 
these dispositions into the bosom of his family and into the 
company of his associates, and a variety of evil consequences 
ensue. The delights that spring from active moral sentiments 
and intellectual powers, are necessarily unknown to him ; and 
the difference between these pleasures, and the sensations at- 
tendant on his moral and intellectual condition, are as great 
as between the external splendor of a king and the naked po- 
verty of a beggar. It is true that he has never felt the enjoy- 
ment, and does not know the extent of his loss ; but still the 
difference exists ; we see it, and know that, as a direct conse- 
quence of this state of mind, he is excluded from a very great 
and exalted pleasure. Farther, his active animal faculties 
rouse the Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, Se- 
cretiveness, and Cautiousness of his wife, children, and asso- 
ciates, against him, and they inflict on him animal punishment. 
He no doubt goes on to eat, drink, blaspheme, and abuse his 
horse, day after day, apparently as if Providence approved ot 
his conduct; but he neither feels, nor can any one who attends 
to his condition believe him to feel, happy : he is uneasy, dis- 
contented, and conscious of being disliked — all which sensa- 
tions are his punishment ; and it is owing solely to his own 
grossness and ignorance that he does not connect it with his 
offence. Let us apply these remarks to nations. 

England, under the impulses of excessively strong Acquis- 
itiveness, Self Esteem, and Destructiveness, for a long time 
protected the slave trade. During the periods of greatest sin 
in this respect, the same combination of faculties ought accord- 
ing to the law which I am explaining, to be found working 
most vigorously in her other institutions, and producing pun- 
ishment for that offence. There ought to k*t found in these 



JNTRIXGMF.NT OF THE MORAL LAVT 23. 

periods a general spirit of domineering and raj acity of hei 
public men, rendering them little mindful of the welfare o» 
the people; injustice and harshness in her taxations and pub- 
lic laws ; and a spirit of aggression and hostility towards other 
nations, provoking retaliation of her insults. And according- 
ly I have been informed, as a matter of fact, that while these 
measures of injustice were publicly patronized by the govern- 
ment, its servants vied with each other in injustice towards it, 
and its subjects dedicated their talents and enterprise towards 
corrupting its officers, and cheating it of its due. Eveij 
trader who was liable to excise or custom duties evaded the 
one half of them, and did not feel that there was any disgrace in 
doing so. A gentleman, who was subject to the excise laws 
fifty years ago, described to me the condition of his trade at 
that time. The excise officers, he said regarded it as an un- 
derstood matter, that at least one half of the goods manufac- 
tured were to be smuggled without being charged with duty; 
but then, said he, " they made us pay a moral and pecuniary 
penalty that was at once galling and debasing. We were 
constrained to ask them to our table at all meals, and place 
them at the head of it in our holiday parties : when they fell 
into debt, we were obliged to help them out of it ; when they 
moved from one house to another, our servants and carts were 
in requisition to transport their effects. By w r ay of keeping 
up discipline among us, and also to make a show of duty, 
they chose every now and then to step in and detect us in a 
fraud, and get us fined : if we submitted quietly, they told us 
that they would make us amends by winking at another fraud, 
and they generally did so; but if our indignation rendered pas- 
sive obedience impossible, and we gave utterance to our opin- 
ion of their character and conduct, they enforced the law on 
us, while they relaxed it on our neighbors ; and these, being 
rivals in trade, undersold us in the market, carried away our 
customers, and ruined our business. Nor did the bondage end 
here. We could not smuggle without the aid of our servants; 
and a6 they could, on occasion of any offence given to them- 
selves, carry information to the head-quarters of excise, we 
were slaves to them also, and were obliged tamely to submit 
to a degree of drunkenness and insolence that appears to me 
.iow perfectly intolerable. Farther, this evasion and oppres- 
sion did us no good ; for all the trade were alike, and we just 
sold our goods so much the cheaper the more duty we evaded ; 
so that our individual success did not depend upon superior 



232 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

skill and superior morality, in making an excellent article at 
a moderate price, but upon superior capacity for fraud, mean- 
ness, sycophancy, and every possible baseness. Our lives 
were any thing but enviable. Conscience, although greatly 
blunted by practices that were universal and viewed as inevi- 
table, still whispered that they were wrong ; our self-respect 
very frequently revolted at the insults to which we were ex- 
posed ; and there was a constant feeling of insecurity from the 
great extent to which we were dependent upon wretches whom 
we internally despised. When the government took a higher 
tone, and more principle and greater strictness in the collection 
of the duties were enforced, we thought ourselves ruined. 
The reverse, however, has been the case. The duties, no 
doubt, are now excessively burthensome from their amount; 
but that is their least evil. Were it possible to collect them 
from every trader with perfect equality, our independence would 
be complete, and our competition would be confined to supe- 
riority in morality and skill. Matters are much nearer this 
point now than they were fifty years ago; but still they would 
admit of considerable improvement." The same individual 
mentioned, that, in his youth, now seventy years ago, the civil 
liberty of the people of Scotland was held by a weak tenure. 
About 1760, he knew instances of soldiers being sent, in time 
of war, to the farm houses, to carry off, by force, young men 
for the army: as this was against the lav, they were accused 
of some imaginary offence, such as a trespass or an assault, 
which was proved by false witnesses ; and the magistrate, per- 
fectly aware of the farce and its object, threatened the victim 
with transportation to the colonies, as a felon, if he would not 
enlist — which, unprotected and overwhelmed by power and in- 
justice, he was of course compelled to do. 

If the same mmute representation were given of other de- 
partments of private life, during the time of the greatest im- 
moralities on the part of the government, we would find that 
this paltering with conscience and character in the national 
proceedings, tended to keep down the morality of the people, 
and fostered in them a rapacious and gambling spirit, to which 
many of the evils that have since overtaken us have owed 
*heir origin. 

But we may take a more extensive view of the subject of 
national responsibility. 

In the American war, Britain desired to gratify her Ac- 
quisitiveness and Self Esteem, in opposition to Benevolenca 



INFRINGEMENT OV THE MORAL LAW. 23.1 

t nd Justice, at the expense of her trans-Atlantic colonies. 
This roused the animal resentment of the latter, and the pro- 
pensities of the two nations came into collision ; that is to 
say, they made war on each other — Britain, to support a 
dominion in direct hostility to the principles which regulate 
the moral government of the world, in the expectation of be- 
coming rich and powerful by success in that enterprise ; the 
Americans to assert the supremacy of the higher sentiments, 
and to become free and independent. According to the prin- 
cip'es which I am now unfolding, the greatest misfortune 
that could have befallen Britain would have been success, 
and the greatest advantage, failure in her attempt ; and the 
result is now acknowledged to be in exact accordance with 
this view. If Britain had subdued the colonies in the Ameri- 
can war, every one must see to what an extent her Self-Es- 
teem, Acquisitiveness, and Destructiveness, would have been 
let loose upon them. This, in the first place, would have 
roused the animal faculties of the conquered party, and led them 
to give her all the annoyance in their power ; and the expense 
of the fleets and armies requisite to repress this spirit, would 
have far counterbalanced all the profits she could have wrung 
out of the colonists by extortion and oppression. In the se- 
cond place, the very exercise of these animal faculties by her- 
self, in opposition to the moral sentiments, would have ren- 
dered her government at home an exact parallel of that of the 
carter in his own family. The same malevolent principles 
would have overflowed on her own subjects : the government 
would have felt uneasy, and the people rebellious, discontented, 
and unhappy ; and the moral law would have been amply vin- 
dicated by the suffering which would have every where abound- 
ed. The consequences of her failure have been the reverse. 
America has sprung up into a great and moral nation, and ac- 
tually contributes ten times more to the wealth of Britain, 
standing as she now does in her natural relation to this coun- 
try, than she ever could have done as a discontented and op- 
pressed colony. This advantage is reaped without any loss, 
anxiety, or expense ; it flows from the divine institutions, and 
both nations profit by and rejoice under it. The moral and 
intellectual rivalry of America, instead of prolonging the as- 
cendency of the propensities in Britain, tends strongly to excite 
the moral sentiments in her people and government ; and every 
day that we live, we are reaping the benefits of this improve- 
ment in wiser institutions, deliverance from endless abuses, 
20* 



234 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

and a higher and purer spirit pervading every department of 
the executive administration of the countiy. Britain, how- 
ever, did not escape the penalty of her attempt at the infringe- 
ment of the moral laws. The pages of her history, during the 
American war, are dark with suffering and gloom, and at this 
day we groan under the debt and difficulties then partly in- 
curred 

If the world be constituted on the principle of the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments and intellect, the practice of one na- 
tion seeking riches and power, by conquering, devastating, or 
obstructing the prosperity of another, must be essentially futile: 
Being in opposition to the moral constitution of creation, it 
must occasion misery while in progress, and can lead to no 
result except the impoverishment and mortification of the peo- 
ple who pursue it. It is narrated that Themistocles told the 
Athenians that he had conceived a project which would be of 
the greatest advantage to Athens, but that the profoundest se- 
crecy was necessary to ensure its success. They desired him 
to communicate it to J^ristides, and promised, if he approved, 
to execute it. Themistocles took Aristides aside, and told him 
that he proposed, unawares, to burn the ships of the Spartans, 
then in profound peace with the Athenian state, and not ex- 
pecting an attack: which would very much weaken the Spar- 
tan power. Aristides reported, that nothing could be more 
advantageous, but nothing more unjust, than the project in 
view. The people refused to hear or to execute it.* Here 
the intellect of Aristides appears to have viewed the execution 
of the scheme as beneficial, while his sentiment of Conscien- 
tiousness distinctly denounced it as morally wrong ; and the 
question is, Whether external nature is so constituted, that the 
intellect can, in any cane, possess sufficient data for inferring 
actual benefit from conduct which is disowned and denounced 
by the moral sentin Lents? It appears to me that it cannot. 
Let us trace the project of Themistocles to its results. 

The inhabitants of Sparta possessed the faculties of Self-Es- 
teem, Combativeness, Destructiveness, Intellect, Benevolence, 
and Conscientiousness. The proposed destruction of their 
ships, in time of profound peace, would have outraged the 
higher sentiments and intellect, and these would have kindled 
Combativeness and Destructiveness into the most intense ac- 
tivity. The greater the injustice of the act, the fiercer would 

* Cicero uY Officiis, lib. iii. 



INFRINGEMENT OF TUE MORAL LAW. 235 

the flame of opposition, retaliation, and revenge have glowed; 
and not only so, hut the more grossly and wantonly the moral 
sentiments were outraged by the act, the higher would have 
been the class of minds which would have instinctively burned 
with the desire of revenge. The Athenians, then, by the very 
constitution of nature, would have been assailed by this fearful 
storm of moral indignation and animal resentment, rendered 
doubly terrible by the most virtuous and intelligent being con- 
verted into the most determined of their opponents. Turning 
to their own state again — only those individuals among them- 
selves in whom intellect and moral sentiment were inferior to 
Acquisitiveness and Self-Esteem; which give rise to selfishness 
and the lust of power, could have cordially approved of the 
deed. The virtuous would have turned from the contempla- 
tion of it with shame and sorrow ; and thus both the character 
and number of the defenders would have been diminished in 
the very ratio of the atrocity of the crime, while the power of 
the assailants, as we have seen, would, by that very circum- 
stance, have been proportionally increased. It was impossible, 
therefore, that advantage to Athens could ultimately have re- 
sulted from such a flagrant act of iniquity; and the apparent 
opposition, in the judgment of Astrides, between the justice of 
the deed and the benefits to be expected from it, arose from 
his intellect not being sufficiently profound and comprehensive 
to grasp the whole springs which the enterprise would call into 
action, and to trace out the ultimate results. In point of fact, 
there would have been no opposition between the dictates of 
Conscientiousness, and those of an intellect that could accu- 
rately survey the whole causes and effects which the unjust 
enterprise would have set in motion — but quite the reverse ; and 
the Athenians, in following the suggestions of the moral senti- 
ment, actually adopted the most advantageous course which 
it was possible for them to pursue. The trite observation, that 
honesty is the best policy, thus becomes a profound philoso- 
phical maxim, when traced to its foundation in the constitu- 
tion of human nature. 

The national debt of Britain has been contracted chiefly in 
wars, originating in commercial jealousy and thirst for con- 
quest ; in short, under the suggestions of Combativeness, De- 
structiveness, Acquisitiveness, and Self-Esteem.* Did not our 

# Of 127 years, terminating in 1815, England spent 65 in war and 63 
In ppace. The war of 1688, after lasting nine years, and raising our 
expenditure in that period 36 millions, was ended by the treaty of Rys- 



236 CALAMITIES ARISING FROM 

ancestors, therefore, impede their own prosperity and happiness., 
by engaging in these contests'? and have any consequences of 
them reached us, except the burden of paying nearly thirty 
millions of taxes annually, as the price of the gratification of 
the propensities of our ignorant forefathers 1 Would a states- 
man, who believed in the doctrines maintained in this work, 
have recommended these wars as essential to national prospe- 
rity? If the twentieth part of the sums had been spent in ef- 
fecting objects recognized by the moral sentiments — in institu- 
ting, for example, seminaries of education and penitentiaries, 
and in making roads, canals, and public granaries — how dif- 
ferent would have been the present condition of the country ! 
After the American followed the French revolutionary war. 
Opinions are at present more divided upon this subject ; but 
my view of it, offered with the greatest deference, is the follow- 
ing. When the French Revolution broke out, the domestic 
institutions of Britain were, to a considerable extent, founded 
and administered on principles in opposition to the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments. A clamor was raised by the nation 
for reform of abuses. If my leading principle be sound, every 
departure from the moral law, in nations as well as individuals, 
carries its punishment with it, from the hour of its commence- 
ment till its final cessation ; and if Britain's institutions were 
then, to any extent, corrupt and defective, she could not have 
too speedily abandoned them, and adopted purer and loftier 
arrangements. Her government, however, clung to the sug- 
gestions of the propensities, and resisted every innovation. To 
divert the national mind from causing a revolution at home, 

wick in 1697. Then came the war of the Spanish succession, which 
began in 1702, concluded in 1713, and absorbed 62£ millions of our mo- 
ney. Next was the Spanish war of 1739, settled finally at Aix -la- Cha« 
pelle in 1748, after costing us nearly 54 millions. Then came the seven 
years' war of 1756, which terminated with the treaty of Paris in 1763, 
and in the course of which we spent 112 millions. The next was the 
American war of 1775, which lasted eight years. Our national expen- 
diture in this war was 136 millions. The French revolutionary war 
began in 1793, lasted nine years, and exhibited an expenditure of 464 
millions The war against Bonaparte began in 1803, and ended in 
1815: during these twelve years, we spent 1159 millions, 771 of which 
were raised by taxes, and 388 by loans. In the revolutionary war we 
borrowed 201 millions*, in the American, 104 millions; in the seven 
years' war, 60 millions; in the Spanish war of 1739, 29 millions; in the 
war of the Spanish succession, 32£ millions; in the war of 1688, 20 
millions. Total borrowed in the seven wars during 65 years, about 834 
mCUions. In the same time, we raised by taxes 1189 millions; thu» 
forming a total expenditure on war of two thousand and tuenty • thrtt 
millions of pounds sterling. — Weekly Jieview 



in^RINGEMEXT OF THE MORAL LAW. 237 

fhey embarked in a war abroad, and, for a period of twenty- 
three years, let loose the propensities on France with head- 
strong fury and a fearful perseverance. France, no doubt, 
threatened the different nations of Europe with the most vio- 
lent interference with their governments; a menace wholly 
unjustifiable, and one which called for resistance. But the 
rulers of that country were preparing their own destruction, in 
exact proportion to their departure from the moral law ; and a 
statesman who knew and had confidence in the constitution 
of the world as now explained, could have Listened to the 
storm with perfect composure, prepared to repel actual aggres- 
sion; and could have left the exploding of French infatuation 
to the Ruler of the Universe, in unhesitating reliance on the 
efficacy of His laws. Britain preferred a war of aggression. 
If this conduct was in accordance with the dictates of the higher 
sentiments, we should now, like America, be reaping the re- 
ward of our obedience to the moral law, and plenty and re- 
joicing should flow down our streets like a stream. But mark 
the contrast. This island exhibits the spectacle of millions of 
men toiling to the extremity of human endurance, for a pit- 
tance scarcely sufficient to sustain life ; weavers laboring for 
fourteen or sixteen hours a day lor eight pence, and frequently 
unable to procure work even on these terms; other artizans, 
exhausted almost to death by laborious drudgery, and who, if 
better recompensed, seek compensation and enjoyment in the 
grossest sensual debauchery, drunkenness, and gluttony; mas- 
ter traders and manufacturers anxiously laboring for wealth, 
now gay in the fond hope that all their expectations will be 
realized, then sunk in despair by the ploughshare of ruin hav- 
ing passed over them ; landholders and tenants now reaping 
unmeasured returns from their properties, then pining in pen- 
ury amidst an overflow of every species of produce ; the gov- 
ernment cramped by an overwhelming debt and the prevalence 
of ignorance and selfishness on every side, so that it is impos- 
sible for it to follow with a bold step the most obvious dictates 
of reason and justice, by reason of the countless prejudices and 
imaginary interests which every where obstruct the path of 
improvement. This much more resembles punishment foi 
transgression than reward for obedience to the Divine laws. 

If every man in Britain will turn his attention inwards, and 
reckon the pangs of disappointment which he has felt at the 
subversion of his own most darling schemes by unexpected 
turns of public events, or the deep inroads on his happiness 



238 CALAMITIES ARTSIxVG FHOM 

which such misfortunes, overtaking his dearest relations and 
friends, have occasioned to him ; the numberless little enjoy- 
ments in domestic life, which he is forced to deny himself, in 
consequence of the taxation with which they are loaded; the 
obstructions to the fair exercise of his industry arid talents, pre- 
sented by stamps, licenses, excise laws, custom house duties, 
c t hoc genus omne; he will discover the extent of responsibility 
attached by the Creator to national transgressions. From my 
own observation, I would say, that the miseries inflicted upon 
individuals and families, by fiscal prosecutions, founded on ex- 
cise laws, stamp laws, post office laws, &c, all originating in 
the necessity of providing for the national debt, are equal to 
those arising from some of the most extensive natural calami- 
ties. It is true, that few persons are prosecuted without hav- 
ing offended; but the evil consists in presenting men with 
enormous temptations to infringe mere financial regulations, 
not always in accordance with natural morality, and then in- 
flicting ruinous penalties for transgression. Men have hitherto 
expected the punishment of their offences in the thunderbolt 
or the yawning earthquake, and have believed, that because 
the sea did not swallow them up, or the mountains fall upon 
them and crush them to atoms, heaven was taking no cogni- 
zance of their sins, while, in point of fact, an omnipotent, an 
all-just, and an all-wise God, had arranged, before they erred, 
an ample retribution in the very consequences of their trans- 
gressions. It is by looking to the principles in the mind, from 
which transgressions flow, and attending to their whole opera- 
tions and results, that we discover the real theory of the Divine 
government. When men shall be instructed in the laws of 
creation, they will discriminate more accurately than heretofore 
between natural and factitious evils, and become less tolerant 
of the latter. 

Since the foregoing observations were written, the great mea- 
sure of Parliamentary Reform has been carried into effect in 
Britain and Ireland, and already considerable progress has 
Deen made in rectifying our national institutions. For the 
first time in the annals of the world, a nation has voluntarily 
contributed a large sum of money for the advancement of pure 
benevolence and justice. We have agreed to pay twenty mil- 
lions sterling for the freedom of 800,000 human beings, whom 
our unprincipled forefathers had led into hopeless slavery. Si- 
necures have been abolished, monopolies destroyed, unmerited 
pensions checked, and taxation lightened ; and 'here is a spirii 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 239 

abroad which demands the reform of all other ahuses in church 
and state. The high gratification which I experience in con- 
templating these changes, arises from the perception that they 
have all the tendency to place the institutions of the country, 
and the administration of them, in harmony with the dictates 
of reason and the moral sentiments , the effect of which will 
infallibly be, not only to increase the physical enjoyments, but 
greatly to advance the moral, intellectual, and religious con- 
dition of the people. Example is the most powerful means of 
instruction, and it was in vain for a priesthood allied to the 
state to preach truth, justice, and benevolence to the people, 
while force, oppression, and many other species of abuse, were 
practised by our rulers and the church itself. No more effec- 
tual means of purifying the hearts of the people can be de- i 
vised, than that of purifying all public institutions, and exhi- 
biting justice and kindly affection as the animating motives of 
public men and national measures. 

Of all national enormities, that of legalising the purchase of 
human beings, and conducting them into slavery, is probably 
the most atrocious and disgraceful ; and Britain was long 
chargeable with this iniquity. The callous inhumanity, the 
intense selfishness, and the utter disregard of justice, implied 
in the practice, must have overflowed in numerous evils on the 
people of Britain themselves. Indeed, the state of wretched 
destitution in which the Irish peasantry are allowed to remain, 
and the unheeded increase of ignorance, poverty, and toil, in 
the manufacturing districts, appear to be legitimate fruits of the 
same spirit which patronized slavery, and these probably are 
preparing punishment for the nation, if repentance shall not 
speedily appear. Slavery, however, has now been abolished 
by Britain, and I hail this as the first step in a glorious career 
of moral legislation. The North Americans have been left 
behind by England, for once, in the march of Christian prac- 
tice. In the United States, Negro slavery continues to deface 
the moral brightness of her legislative page ; and on no subject 
does prejudice appear to be so inveterately powerful in that 
country as on slavery. Greatly as I respect the character of 
the Americans, it is impossible to approve of their treatment 
of the Negro population. The ancestors of the present Ame- 
rican people stole, or acquired by an unprincipled purchase, 
tne ancestors of the existing Negroes, and doomed them to a 
degrading bondage. This act was utterly at variance with the 
dictates of the moral sentiments, and of Christianity. Their 



t40 CALAMITIES AR1SFXG FROM 

posterity have retained the blacks in thraldom, treated them with 
contumely, and at this day regard them as scarcely human be- 
ings. This also is a grievous transgression of the natural and 
revealed law of moral duty. Evil and suffering must flow 
from these transgressions to the American people themselves, 
if a just God really governs the world. 

The argument that the Negroes are incapable of civilization 
and freedom, is prematurely urged, and not relevant although 
it were based upon fact. The Negro head presents great va- 
rieties of moral and intellectual development, and I have seen 
several which appeared fully equal to the discharge of the or- 
dinary duties of civilized men. But the race has never re- 
ceived justice from its European and American masters; and 
until its treatment shall have become moral, its capabilities 
cannot be fairly estimated, and the judgment against it is there- 
fore premature.* But, whatever be the capabilities of the Ne- 
groes, it was a heinous moral transgression to transport them, 
by violent means, from the region where they had been placed 
by a wise and benevolent God, and to plant them in a new 
soil, and amidst institutions, for which they were never in- 
tended; and the punishment of this offence will rather be 
aggravated than averted, by losing sight of the source of the 
transgression, and charging the consequences of it on the 
Negroes, as if they were to blame for their alleged incapacity 
to glide gracefully into the ranks of American civilization 
The Negroes must either be improved by culture and inter- 
marriage with the white race, or re transferred to their native 
climate, before America can escape from the hands of divine 

* The readerwill find, in the 46th number of Chambers' Edinburgh 
Journal (15th Dec 1832 -a very interesting account of a Negro of high 
moral and intellectual qualities, who lived for a considerable time near 
Hawick. Another Negro, called Eustache, of whose head there is a 
cast in the Phrenological Society's collection, displayed a degree of 
shrewdness and disinterested benevolence very rare even ir: Europe; 
and his head, while it presents an excellent anterior development, is 
more prominent at the organ of Benevolence than any other head 
which has fallen under my observation. An account of Eustache will 
be found in the Phrenological Journal, vol ix. p. 134. Mr. Lawrence 
has collected in the eighth chapter of his admirable Lectures on Phy- 
siology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, a great variety 'of 
facts tending to*prove that the Negroes, though morally and intellec- 
tually-'- nferiwr to the white race, are by no means near the bottom of 
the scale of humanity; and he expresses the well grounded opirion, 
" that of the dark colored people none have distinguished themselves 
by stronger proofs of capacity for literary and scientific investigation, 
and, consequently, that none* approach more nearly than the Negro to 
the polished nations of the globe." 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 241 

justice. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the details of 
American social life, to be able to point out the practical form 
in which the punishment is inflicted ; but if there be truth in 
the principles now expounded, no doubt can be entertained 
of its existence. 

The alternative of incorporating the Negroes, by inter- 
marriage, with the European race, appears revolting to the 
feelings of the latter ; while they also declare it to be impos- 
sible to retransport the blacks to Africa, on account of their 
overwhelming numbers. There is much force in both of these 
objections, but the following considerations have still greate* 
weight : — the white race is exclusively to blame for the origin 
of the evil, and for all its consequences; the natural laws 
never relax in their operation ; and hence the existing eviis 
will go on augmenting until a remedy be adopted, and this 
will become more painful the longer it is delayed. If the 
present state of things shall be continued for a century, it is 
probable that it will end in a war of extermination between 
the black and the while population, or in an attempt by the 
blacks to conquer and exclusively possess one or more of the 
•outhern states of the Union as an independent kingdom for 
themselves. 

At the time when I write these pages, the planters of 
Jamaica and of the West India Islands are complaining of 
the ruinous consequences to them of Negro emancipation, 
and blaming the British government for having abrogated 
slavery. These men apparently do not believe in the moral 
government of the world, or they do not know the manner in 
which it is administered. If they did, they would acknow- 
ledge that those who sow the wind have no right to complain 
when they reap the whirlwind. The permanence of Negro 
slavery in the West Indies was impossible ; because it was a 
system of gross injustice, cruelty, and oppression, and no 
such social fabric can permanently endure. Its fruits have 
long been poisonous and bitter, and the planters are suffering 
the penalty of having reared them. They ought, however, 
to thank the justice and repentant generosity of the mother 
country, which, by purchasing the freedom of the slaves, has 
so greatly mitigated their punishment; for they may rest 
assured, that the annoyances now suffered are light and 
transient compared with the calamities which would have be- 
fallen them had slavery been prolonged until it had wrought 
out its own termination. Another generation w?ll probably 
16 21 



242 CALAMITIES ARISI3TG FROM 

•ee and acknowledge this truth. But, in the mean time, I 
remark, that, be the sufferings of the West India planters at 
present what they may, they, as the representatives of the 
original transgressors, are justly sustaining the penalty ; and, 
in their instance, as in that of a patient undergoing a severe 
©peration to escape from a dangerous disease, delay would 
only have protracted their affliction, and augmented the ulti- 
mate pain and the danger of the remedy. 

The Spaniards under the influence of selfish rapacity and 
ambition, conquered South America,' inflicted upon its wretched 
inhabitants the most atrocious cruelties, and continued, for 300 
years, to weigh like a moral incubus upon that quarter of the 
globe. The punishment is now endured. By the laws of 
the Creator, nations must obey the moral law to be happy ; 
that is, to cultivate the arts of peace and to be industrious, 
upright, intelligent, pious, and humane. The reward of such 
conduct is individual happiness, and national greatness and 
giory : there shall then be none to make them afraid. The 
Spaniards disobeyed all these laws in the conquest of America ; 
they looked to rapine and foreign gold, and not to industry, 
for wealth ; and this fostered avarice and pride in the govern- 
ment, baseness in the nobles, and indolence, ignorance, and 
mental depravity in the people — it led them to imagine hap- 
^ piness to consist, not in the exercise of the moral and intel- 
lectual powers, but in the gratification of all the inferior, to 
the outrage of the higher feelings. Intellectual cultivation 
was utterly neglected, the sentiments ran astray into bigotry 
and superstition, and the propensities acquired a fearful as- 
cendency. These causes made them the prey of internal 
discord and foreign invaders, and Spain at this moment suf- 
fers an awful retribution. 

Cowper recognizes these principles of divine government 
as to nations, and has embodied them in the following power- 
ful verses : — • 

The hand that slew till it could slay no more. 

Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore. 

Their prince, as justly seated on his throne 

As vain imperial Philip on his own, 

Tricked out of all his royalty by art, 

That stripped him bare, and broke his honest heart 

Died by the sentence of a shaven priest, 

For scorning what they taught him to detest 

How dark the veil, that intercepts the blaze 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 243 

Of Heaven's mysterious purposes and ways ! 

God stood not, though he seemed to stand, aloof; 

And at this hour the conqueror feels the proof: 

The wreath he won drew down an instant curse. 

The fretting plague is in the public purse, 

The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state, 

Starved by that indolence their minds create. 
Oh ! could their ancient Incas rise again, 

How would they take up Israel's taunting strain ! 

Art thou too fallen, Iberia 1 Do we see 

The robber and the murd'rer weak as we? 

Thou that hast wasted earth, and dared despise 

Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies, 

Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid 

Low in the pits thine avarice has made. 

We -come with joy from our eternal rest, 

To see th' oppressor in his turn oppressed. 

Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand 

Rolled ove*r all our desolated land, 

Shook principalities and kingdoms down, 

And made the mountains tremble at his frown 1 

The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers, 

And waste them, as the sword has wasted ours. 

'Tis thus Omnipotence his law fulfils, 

And Vengeance executes what Justice wills. 

Comperes Poems. — Charity, 

The question has frequently been discussed, whether the 
Civilization of savages may be more easily effected by forcible 
&f by pacific measures. By one class of reasoners, including 
the late excellent Sir Stamford Raffles, it is contended thai 
civilized nations may, in their endeavors to improve and en 
lighten savage tribes, employ with advantage the superior 
power with which they are armed : but on the principle of the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments, we are entitled to con- 
clude, a priori, that such a method of proceeding would be 
found ineffectual. The employment of compulsion is calcu- 
lated to rouse chiefly the propensities, while the very essence 
of civilization is the predominance of the moral and intel- 
lectual powers.* This subject is ably handled by a very- 
acute anonymous writer in the Library of Entertaining Know- 
ledge.f History, he remarks, does not warrant the o pinion 

* See Observations on the Phrenological Standard of Civilization, 
Phrenological Journal ix. 360 

♦ m he New Zealandera, p. 402-410. 



244 CALAMITIES ARISING IRCtTm. 

that any nation has ever been civilized by the sword ; and the 
improvement which followed the Roman conquests appears 
to have been brought about, not by compulsion, but by the 
exhibition of " a standard and pattern of comfort and ele- 
gance which the barbarians could hardly fail first to admire, 
and afterwards to imitate." The Romans do not seem to 
have violently interfered with the established customs and 
institutions of conquered nations. "The inferior animals," 
says the excellent writer alluded to, " can only be reduced to 
obedience by constraint ; but men are formed to be tamed by 
other methods. Example, persuasion, instruction, are the 
only means we may lawfully make use of to wean savages 
from their barbarism; and they are also the best fitted to 
accomplish that object. It is not even pretended that an ex- 
ercise of what are falsely called the rights of conquest for 
such a purpose would have any chance of being successful 
till after the lapse of at least two or three generations — till 
the conquered people, in fact, have become mixed and amal- 
gamated with their conquerors, or, from not having been 
permitted to follow the customs of their ancestors, have actu- 
ally forgotten them. In some cases the natives have been 
absolutely extirpated before this has happened, as was the 
case almost universally on the South American continent, and 
of which we have a more remarkable instance in the attempts 
of the Spanish Jesuits to christianize by main foi hs the inha- 
bitants of the Marianas, which were terminated in a few years 
by the almost entire depopulation of that beautiful aichi- 
pelago."* 

In surveying the present aspect of Europe, we perceive 
astonishing improvements achieved in physical science. How 
much is implied in the mere names of the steam engine, 
power looms, rail roads, steam boats, canals, and gas lights ; 
and yet of how much misery are several of these inventions 
at present the direct sources, in consequence of being almost 
exclusively dedicated to the gratification of the propensities ! 
The leading purpose to which the steam engine in almost all 
its forms of application is devoted, is the accumulation of 
wealth, or the gratification of Acquisitiveness and Self-Esteem; 
and few have proposed to lessen, by its means, the hours of 
toil of the lower orders of society, so as to afford them oppor- 

* See the narrative of these extraordinary proceedings, though re- 
lated by a pen in the interest of their autho 6, in Father Legobien'f 
Histoid dfs lies Mariannes ." 



INFRINGEMENT OF THE MORAL LAW. 245 

tunity and leisure for the cultivation of their moral and intel 
lectual faculties, and thereby to enable them to render a more 
perfect obedience to the Creator's institutions. Physical ha? 
far outstripped moral science ; and it appears to me, that, 
unless mankind shall have their eyes opened to the real con- 
stitution of the world, and be at length induced to regulate 
their conduct in harmony with the aws of the Creator, their 
future physical discoveries will teftd only to deepen their 
wretchedness. Intellect, acting as the ministering servant of 
he propensities, will lead them only farther astray. The 
science of man's whole nature, animal, moral, and intel- 
lectual, was never more required to guide him than at present, 
when he seems to wield a giant's power, but in the applica- 
tion of.it to display the ignorant selfishness, wilfulness, and 
absurdity of an overgrown child. History has not yielded 
half her fruits, and cannot yield them until mankind shall 
possess a true theory of their own nature. 

Many persons believe that they discover evidence against 
the moral government of the world, in the success of indi- 
viduals not greatly gifted with moral and intellectual qualities, 
in attaining to great wealth, rank, and social consideration, 
while men of far superior merit remain in obscurity and 
poverty. But the solution of this difficulty is to be found iiv 
the consideration, that success in society depends on the pos- 
session, in an ample degree, of the qualities which society 
needs and appreciates, and that these bear reference to the 
state in which society finds itself at the time when the ob- 
servation is made. In the savage and barbarous conditions, 
bodily strength, courage, fortitude, and skill in war, lead a 
man to the highest honors ; in a society like that of modern 
England, commercial or manufacturing industry may crown 
an individual with riches, and ffreat talents of debate may 
carry him to the summit of political ambition. In proportion 
as society advances in moral and intellectual acquirements, it 
will make larger demands for similar qualities in its favorites. 
The reality of the moral government of the world appears 
from the degree of happiness which individuals and society 
enjoy in these different states. If unprincipled commercial 
and political adventurers were happy in proportion to their 
apparent success ; or if nations were as prosperous under the 
dominion of reckless warriors as under that of benevolent and 
enlightened rulers ; or if the individuals who compose a na- 
tion enjoyed as much serenity and joy of mind when they 
21* 






246 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

advanced the bold, selfish, and unprincipled to places of trust 
and power, as when they chose the upright, benevolent, and 
pious — the dominion of a just Creator might well be doubted. 
But the facts are the reverse of these. 

CHAPTER VI. 

SECT. I. ON TUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED UNDER THE 

NATURAL LAWS. 

The last point connected with the Natural Laws, which I 
consider, is the principle on which punishment for infringe- 
ment of them is inflicted in this world. 

Every law presupposes a superior, who establishes it, and 
requires obedience to its dictates. The superior may be sup- 
posed to act under the dictates of the animal faculties, or 
under those of the moral sentiments. The former being 
selfish, whatever they desire is for selfish gratification. Hence 
laws instituted by a superior inspired by the animal powers* 
would have for their leading object the individual advantage 
of the law-giver, with no systematic regard to the enjoyment 
or welfare of those who were called on to obey. The moral 
sentiments, on the other hand, are altogether generous, dis- 
interested, and just; they delight in the happiness of others, 
and do not seek individual advantage as their supreme end. 
Laws instituted by a law-giver inspired by them, would have 
for their grand object the advantage and enjoyment of those 
who were required to yield obedience. The story of William 
Tell will illustrate my meaning. Gessler, an Austrian gov- 
ernor of the Canton of Uri, placed his hat upon a pole, and 
required the Swiss peasants to pay the same honors to it that 
were due to himself. The object of this requisition was ob- 
viously the gratification of the Austrian's Self-Esteem, in 
witnessing the humiliation of the Swiss. It was framed 
without the least regard to their happiness ; because such 
abject slavery could gratify no faculty in their minds, and 
ameliorate no principle of their nature, but, on the contrary, 
was calculated to cause the greatest pain to their feelings. 

Before punishment for breaking such a law as this could 
be justly inflicted, it would be indispensably necessary that 
th*» people called on to obey it should not only possess the 
power of doing so, but likewise he benefitted by their obedi- 
ence. If it could be established, that, by the very constita- 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 247 

rion of their minds, it was impossible for the Swiss to rever- 
ence the hat of the tyrant, and that, if they had protended to 
do so, they would have manifested only baseness and hypo- 
crisy — then the law was unjust, and all punishment for 
disobedience was pure tyranny and oppression on the part of 
the governor. In punishing, he employed Destructiveness as 
a means of procuring gratification to his own Self-Esteem. 

Let us imagine, on the other hand, a law promulgated by 
a sovereign whose sole motive was the happiness of his sub- 
jects, and that the edict was, Thou shalt not steal. If the 
law-giver were placed far above the reach of theft by his 
subjects, and if respect to each other's rights were indis- 
pensable to the welfare of his people themselves, then it is 
obvious, that, so far as he was personally concerned, their 
stealing or not stealing would be of no importance to him, 
while it would be of the highest moment to themselves. Let 
us suppose, then, that, in order to prevent the evils which the 
subjects would bring upon themselves by stealing, he were to 
add as a penalty, that every man who stole should be locked 
up, and instructed in his duty until he clearly felt the ne- 
cessity of abstaining from theft — the justice and benevolence 
of this sentence would rest securely on the circumstance, that 
it was in the highest degree advantageous, both to society at 
large and to the offender himself. Suppose that the latter 
was born with large organs of Acquisitiveness and Secretive- 
ness, and deficient Conscientiousness, and that when he 
committed the offence he really could not help stealing — still 
there would be no cruelty and no injustice in locking him up 
and instructing him in moral duty until he learned to abstain 
from theft ; because, if this were not done, and if all men 
were to follow his example and only steal, the human race, 
and he, as a member of it, would necessarily starve and be- 
come extinct. 

Now, the Creator's natural laws, so far as I have been able 
to perceive them, are instituted solely on the latter principle ; 
that is to say, there is not the slightest indication of the object 
of any of the arrangements of creation being to gratify an 
inferior feeling in the Creator himself. No well constituted, 
mind, indeed, could conceive Him commanding beings whom 
He called into existence, and whom He could annihilate m a 
moment, to do any act of homage which had reference merely 
to the acknowledgment of his authority, solely for His per- 
sonal gratification, and without regard *o their own welfare 



248 0]V PUtflSHXE^T AS INFLICTED 

and enjoyment. We cannot, hi short, without absolute out- 
rage to the moral sentiments and intellect, imagine Him doing 
any thing analogous to the act of the Swiss governor — placing 
an emblem of His authority on high, and requiring His crea 
tures to obey it, merely to gratify Himself by their homage, 
to their own disparagement and distress. Accordingly, every 
natural law, so far as I can discover, appears clearly instituted 
for the purpose of adding to the enjoyment of the creatures 
who are called upon to obey it. The object of the punish 
ment inflicted for disobedience is to arrest the offender in his 
departure from the laws; which departure, if permitted to 
proceed to its natural termination, would involve him in 
tenfold greater miseries. This arrangement greatly promotes 
the activity of the faculties ; and, active faculties being foun- 
tains of pleasure, the penalties themselves become benevolent 
and just. For example, 

Under one of the physical laws, all organic bodies are 
liable to combustion. Timber, coal, oils, and animal sub- 
stances, when heated to a certain extent, catch fire and burn: 
And the question occurs, Was this quality bestowed on them 
for a benevolent purpose or not] Let us look to the ad- 
vantages attending it. By means of fire we obtain warmth 
in cold latitudes, and light after the sun has set: it enables us 
to cook, thereby rendering our food more wholesome and sa- 
voury ; and by its aid we soften and fuse the metals. I need 
go no farther ; every one will acknowledge, that by the law 
under which organic bodies are liable to combustion, count- 
less benefits are conferred on the human rac*. 

The human body itself, however, is organi^.d, and in con- 
sequence is subject to this law ; so that, if placed in a great 
fire, it is utterly dissipated in a few minutes. Some years 
ago, a woman, in a fit of insanity, threw Uerseif into an 
iron smelting furnace, in full blaze : she was observed by a 
man working on the spot, who instantly put off the steam 
engine that was working the bellows, and came to take her 
out ; but he then saw only a small black speck on the sur ace 
of the fire, and in a few minutes more even it had disap- 
peared. The effect of a less degree of heat is to disorganize 
\he texture of the body. What mode, then, has the Creator 
followed, to preserve men from the danger to which they are 
subjected by fire ] He has caused their nerves to communi- 
cate sensations from heat, agreeable while the temperature is 
such as to benefit the body ; slightly uneasy, when it become* 



UNDER TnK NATURAL LAWS. 249 

•o high as to be in some measure hurtful; positively painful 
when the heat approaches that degree at which it would seri- 
ously injure the organized system; and horrihly agonizing 
whenever it becomes so elevated as to destroy the organs. 
The principle of all this is very obviously benevolent. Com- 
bustion brings us innumerable advantages; and when we 
place ourselves in accordance with the law intended to regu- If/ 
late our relation to it, we reap unmingled benefits and plea- < 
sure. But w? are in danger from its excessive action ; and 
so kind is the Creator, that he does not trust to the guardian- 
ship of our own Cautiousness and intellect alone to protect us 
from infringement, but has established a monitor in every 
sensitive nerve, whose admonitions increase in intensity 
through imperceptible gradations, exquisitely adjusted to the 
degrees of danger, till at last, in pressing circumstances, they 
urge in a note so clamant as to excite the whole physical and 
mental energy of the offender to withdraw him from the im- 
pending destruction. 

Many persons imagine that this mode of admonition would 
be altogether unexceptionable if the offender always possessed 
the power to avoid incurring it, but that, on the other hand, 
when a child, or an aged person, stumbles into the fire, 
through mere lack of bodily strength to keep out of it, it 
cannot be just and benevolent to visit him with the tortures 
that follow from burning. This, however, is a shortsighted 
objection. If, to remedy the evil supposed, the law of com- 
bustion were altogether suspended as to children and old 
men, so that, as far as they were concerned, fire did not exist, 
then they would be deprived of the light, warmth, and other 
benefits which it affords. This would be an awful depriva 
tion; for warmth is more than commonly grateful and neces- 
sary to them, in consequence of the very feebleness of their 
frames. Or we may suppose that their nerves were consti- 
tuted so as to feel no pain from burning — an arrangement 
which would effectually guarantee them against the torture 
of falling in the fire : But, in the first place, neves feel pain 
under the same law that enables them to feel pleasure — the 
agony of burning arises altogether from an excessive degree 
of the stimulus of heat, which, when moderate, is genial and 
pleasant ; and, secondly, if no pain were felt when in the fire, 
the child and old man would have no urgent motive to get out 
of it. Under the present system, the pain would excite an 
intense cksire to escape ; it would increase thejr muscular 



250 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

« 

energy, or make them roar aloud for assistance in short, il 
would compel them to get out of the fire, by some means or 
other, and thus if possible escape from death. As they fell 
into the fire in consequence of a deficiency of mental or 
bodily power to keep out of it, the conclusion is obvious, that 
if no pain attended their contact with the flames, they might 
repose there as contentedly as on a bed of down ; and the 
fond mother might find a black cinder for her child, or a 
pious daughter a half-charred mass of bones for her father, 
although he had been only in an adjoining apartment, the 
slightest ciy or groan from which would have brought her to 
arrest the calamity. 

In this instance, then, the law of combustion under which 
punishment is inflicted, is both benevolent and just, even 
when pi>in visits persons who were incapable of avoiding 
the offence ; because the object of the law is the welfare of 
these very Unconscious offenders themselves, so that if it were 
subverted, they would be greatly injured, and would louldly 
petition for its re-establishment. 

Let us take another example. Opium, by its inherent 
qualities, and the relationship established by the Creator be- 
tween it and the nervous system of man, operates, if taken 
in one proportion, as a stimulant; if the proportion is in- 
creased, it bebomes a sedative ; and if still increased, it 
paralyses the nervous system altogether, and death ensues. 
Now, it is generally admitted that there is no want of be- 
nevolence and justice, when a full grown and intelligent 
man loses his life, if he deliberately swallow an overdose of 
opium, knowing its qualities and their effects ; because, it is 
said, he exposed himself to these effects voluntarily : When, 
however, an ignorant child, groping about for something to 
eat and drink, in order to satisfy the craving of its natural 
curiosity and appetite, stumbles on a phial of laudanum, in- 
tended for the use of some sick relative, pulls the cork, drinks, 
and dies — many persons imagine that it is very difficult to 
discover justice and benevolence in this severe, and, as they 
ay, unmerited catastrophe. 

But the real view of the law under which both events 
happen, appears to me to be this. The inherent qualities of 
opium, and its relationship to the nervous system, are very 
obviously benevolent, and are the sources of manifest advan- 
tages to man. If, in order to avoid every chance of accidents, 
opium, in so far as children are concerned, were deprived of 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 5M 

Its qualities, so that their nervous system received no greater 
impression from it than from tepid water, it is clear that they 
would be decidedly sufferers. The greatest advantages of the 
drug are derived from its scale of efficiency, by which it can 
be made to produce, first a stimulating effect, then a gently 
•sedative, and afterwards a higher and a higher degree of seda- 
tive influence, until, by insensible degrees, absolute paralysis 
may ensue. A dose which kills in health will cure in disease ; 
and, if its range were limited to effects beneficial in health 
its advantages in disease, arising from higher action, wouk. 
necessarily be lost — so that children, by the supposed arrange- 
ment, would be cut off from its beneficial administration. 
The parallel between it and the law of combustion is com- 
plete. If we could never have commanded a degree of heat 
higher than that which gently warms the human body, we 
must have wanted all the advantages now derivable from the 
intense heats used in cooking, baking, and manufacturing; 
if we could never have commanded more than the gently 
stimulant and sedative effects of opium on the body in a state 
of health, we should necessarily have been deprived of its 
powerful remedial action in cases of disease. The proper 
question then is, whether is it more benevolent and just that 
children, after they have been exposed, from whatever cause, 
to that high degree of its influence, which, although beneficial 
in disease, is adverse to the healthy action of the nervous 
system, should be preserved alive in this miserable condition, 
or that life should at once be terminated? It appears obvi- 
ously advantageous to the offender himself, that death should 
relieve him from the unhappy condition into which his organ- 
ized frame has been brought by the abuse of this substance, 
calculated, when discreetly used, to confer on him no mean 
advantages. 

The principle that Divine punishments are founded in be- 
nevolence, even to the sufferer, is strongly elucidated in the 
case of the organic laws. When inflammation, for example, 
has seized any vital organ, if there were no pain, there would 
be no intimation that an organic law had been infringed, the 
disease would proceed quietly in its progress, and death would 
ensue without the least previous warning. The pain attending 
an acute disease, therefore, is obviously instituted to warn the 
6urferer, by the most forcible of all admonitions, to return to 
obedience to the law which he has infringed. In the case of 
% broken limb, or a deep cut, the principle becomes exceed' 



252 OS PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

ingly obvious. The bone of the leg will reunite, if the broken 
edges are preserved in close contact; and the subsequent 
serviceable condition of the ,iimb will depend much upon the 
degree of exactness with which they have been made to re- 
approach and been preserved in their natural position. Now, 
in the first place, the pain attending a broken limb gives a 
most peremptory intimation that an injury has been sustained, 
secondly, it excites the individual most forcibly to the repa- 
ration of it; and, thirdly, as it recurs with a degree of vio- 
lence exactly proportioned to the disturbance of the parts, 
after the healing process has commenced it officiates like a 
sentinel with a drawn sword, compelling the patient to avoid 
every thing that may impede his recovery. The same obser- 
vations apply to a flesh wound. The pain serves to intimate 
the injury, and to excite to its removal. The dissevered edges 
of the skin, nerves, and muscles, if skilfully made to re- 
approach, will, by the organic law, re-unite if left in repose. 
An accession of pain follows every disturbance of their con- 
dition, when in the process of healing ; and it serves, there- 
fore, as a most effectual and benevolent guardian of the 
welfare of the individual. If these views be correct, what 
person would dispense with the pain which attends the in- 
fringement of the organic laws, although such a boon were 
offered for his acceptance 1 It is obvious, that, if he possessed 
the least glimmering of understanding, he would thank the 
Creator for the institution, and beg in mercy to be allowed 
the benefits attending it ; especially if he considered the fact, 
that, after the possibility of recovery ceases, death steps in to 
terminate the suffering. 

The point to which I request the reader's special attention 
is, that the power of the individual to avoid, or not to avoid, 
the infringement of the law in the particular instance which 
brings the punishment, is not an indispensable circumstance 
in rendering the infliction benevolent and just The inflic- 
tion is approved of by the moral sentiments and intellect, be- 
cause the law, in its legitimate operation, is calculated alto- 
gether for the advantage of the subject; and because the 
punishment has no object but to bring him back to obedience 
for his own welfare, or to terminate his sufferings when he 
has erred too vndely to return. 

Let us now inquire whether the same principle prevails in 
regard to the infringement of the Moral and Intellectual 
Laws. This investigation is attended with great difficulty ; 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 253 

and it may be best elucidated by attending, in tbe first place, 
to the liability to punishment for their actions, under which 
the lower animals are placed. 

The physical and organic laws affect the inferior creatures 
in the same manner as they regulate man, so that nothing 
need be said on these points. The animals are endowed 
with propensities impelling them to act, and a certain degree 
of intellect enabling them to perceive the consequences of 
their actions. These faculties prompt them to inflict punish- 
ment on each other for infringement of their rights, although 
they possess no sentiments pointing out the moral guilt of 
such conduct. For example, dogs possess Acquisitiveness, 
which gives them the sense of property : when one is in pos- 
session of a bone, and another attempts to steal it, this act 
instantly excites the Combativeness and Destructiveness of 
the proprietor of the bone, and he proceeds to worry the 
assailant. Or a cock, on a dunghill, finds a rival intruding 
on his domain, and under the instinctive inspiration of Com- 
bativeness and offended Self-Esteem, he attacks him and 
drives him off. I call this inflicting animal punishment. In 
these cases it is not supposed that the aggressors possess mo- 
ral faculties, intimating that their trespass is wrong, or free 
will by which they could avoid it. I view them as inspired 
by their propensities, and rushing blindly to gratification. 
Nevertheless, in the effect which the aggression produces on 
the propensities of the animal assailed, we perceive an 
arrangement instituted by the Creator for checking outrage, 
and arresting its progress. 

Before the penalty inflicted could be viewed by man as 
just in such cases, it would be necessary to perceive that it 
was instituted for the benefit of aggressors themselves ; and, 
in truth, this is clearly o)»served to be the case. If all dogs 
neglected to seek bones, and dedicated themselves solely to 
stealing; and if cocks, in general, deserted their own do- 
mains, and gave themselves up only to felonious inroads on 
each other's territories ; it is evident that the races of these 
animals would soon become extinct It follows also, that 
any individual among them who should habitually abandon 
himself to such transgressions, would speedily loose his life 
by violence or starvation. If, then, it is beneficial for the 
race, and also for the individual offender himself, in these 
instances, to be arrested in his progress, his chastisement is 
decidedly benevolent and just 
22 



254 0> T PUNISHMENT AS IXFLICTSD 

It is interesting to observe, that various provisions are made 
under the animal law for bringing about substantial justice, 
even in creatures destitute of the sentiment of Conscientious- 
ness. The lower animals make perfectly sure of punishing 
only the real offender; for he must be caught in thf act, 
otherwise he is not visited by their resentment. In th«°; next 
place, it appears to be the general law of animal natu) a, that 
unless the offender has carried his inroad to an extreme ex- 
tent, the punishment is relaxed the moment he desists ; that 
is to say, the master of the bone or dunghill is ^snerally 
satisfied with simple defence, and rarely abandons his treasure 
to pursue the offender for the sake of mere revenge 

Farther, the animals, in inflicting punishment, make no in- 
quiry into the cause of the offence. With them it affords no 
alleviation that the aggressor is himself in a state of greatest 
destitution, or that his appetite is irresistible ; neither do they 
concern themselves about his fate after they have made him 
undergo the penalty. He may die of the wounds they have 
inflicted upon him, or of absolute starvation, before their 
eyes, without their enjoyment being in the least disturbed. 
This arises from their faculties consisting entirely of those 
powers which regard only self. They are deficient in the 
faculties which inquire into causes and trace consequences ; 
and in the moral sentiments, which desire, with a disinterested 
affection, the welfare of other beings. 

Nevertheless, the punishment which they inflict is in itself 
just, and serves, as we have seen, a decidedly beneficial end. 
Let us now direct our attention to man. 

Man possesses the same animal propensities as those of 
the lower creatures, and, under their instigation, he inflicts 
punishment on principles precisely analogous to those under 
which they chastise. Indeed it is curious to remark, that 
hitherto the criminal laws, even of the most civilized nations, 
nave been framed on the principles of animal punishment 
exclusively. A thief, for example, breaks into a dwelling 
house and steals. The reflecting faculties are employed to 
discover the offender, and find evidence of the offence. Judges 
and juries assemble to determine whether the evidence is 
sufficient ; and if they find it to be so, the offender is ordered 
to be banished, imprisoned, or hanged. We are apt to ima- 
gine that there is something moral in the trial. But the sole 
object of it is to ascertain that a crime has been committed, and 
that the accused is the real offender. The dog and the cock 



U^IIEII THE NATURAL LAWS. 255 

make equally certain of both points; because they nevet 
punish except whrn the individual is caught in the offence. 
Guilt being ascertained, and the offender identified, the dog 
shakes and worries him, and then lets him go ; while man 
scourges his back, or makes him mount the steps of a tread- 
mill, and then turns him adrift. If *he offender has been 
very presumptuous and pertinacious in his aggression, the 
dog sometimes, although rarely, throttles him outright : and 
man, in similar circumstances, very generally strangles him 
with a rope, or cuts off his head. The dog, in his proceeding, 
makes no inquiry into the causes which led to the crime, or 
into the consequences, upon the offender, of the punishment 
which he inflicts. In this also he is imitated by the human 
race. Man inflicts his vengeance with as little inquiry into 
the causes which led to the offence — and, except when he 
puts him to death, he turns the culprit adrift upon the w 7 orld 
after he has undergone his punishment, with as little concern 
stoat what shall next befall him as is shown by his canine 
prototype. The dog acts in this manner, because he is in- 
spired by animal propensities, and higher faculties have been 
denied him. Man imitates him, because he too has received 
animal faculties — and because, although he possesses, in ad- 
dition to them, moral sentiments and reflecting intellect, he 
has not yet discovered the practical application of these to 
the subject of criminal legislation. 

The animal punishment is not without advantage even in 
case of man, although it is far short, in this respect, of what 
he might obtain by following the guidance of his moral senti- 
ments and enlightened intellect. Man as a mere animal could 
not exist in society, unless some check w r ere instituted against 
abuses of the propensities; and hence it is quite obvious that 
animal vengeance, rude as it is, carries with it results bene- 
ficial even to the offender, except where it puts him to death 
— a degree of punishment which, as we have seen, the lower 
animals rarely inflict on each other of the same species 
Unless the outrages of Destructiveness, Acquisitiveness, Self 
Esteem, and the other animal faculties, were checked, human 
society would be dissolved, and by that result the offenders 
themselves would suffer more grievous calamities than under 
any moderate form *of animal castigation. 

The world is arranged, in so far as regards the lower crea 
tures, with a wise relation to the faculties bestowed on thera. 
\coordingly, anima resentment is really effective in thei* 



256 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

case. In consequence of their not possessing reflecting fa- 
culties, they are incapable of forming deep or extensive 
schemes for mutual aggression, and are not led to speculate 
on the chances of escaping detection in their misdeeds. Their 
offences are limited to casual overflowings of their propensi- 
ties when excited by momentary temptation ; which are 
checked by counter overflowings of other propensities, mo- 
mentarily excited in the animals aggrieved. 

In regard to man, however, the world has been arranged 
on the principle of supremacy of the moral sentiments and 
intellect; and, in consequence, animal retribution is not 
equally effectual in his case. For example, a human offender 
employs his intellect in devising means to enable him to 
escape detection, or to defend himself against punishment; 
and hence, although he sees punishment staring him in the 
face, his hope deludes him into the belief that he may escape 
it. Farther, if the real cause of human offences be excessive 
size and activity of the organs of the animal propensities, it 
follows that mere punishment cannot put a stop to crime ; 
because it overlooks the cause, and leaves it to operate with 
unabated energy after the iiijliction has been endured. The 
history of the world, accordingly, presents us with a regular 
succession of crimes and punishments, and at present the 
series appears to be as far removed from a termination as at 
any previous period of the annals of our race. 

If the Wv>rld, in regard to man, has been arranged on the 
principle of supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, 
we might expect better success were moral retribution, of 
which I now proceed to treat, resorted to. 

The motive which prompts the dog to worry, and the cock 
to perk and spur his assailant, is as we ha\e seen, mere ani- 
mal )esentment. His propensities are disagreeably affected, 
and Combativeness and Destructiveness instinctively start 
into activity to repel the aggression. The animal resentment 
of man is precisely analogous. A thief is odious to Acquisi- 
tiveness, because he robs it of its treasures ; a murderer is 
offensive to our feelings, because he extinguishes life. And, 
these faculties being offended, Combativeness and Destruc- 
tiveness rush "to their aid in man while under the animal 
dominion, as instinctively as in the dog — and punish the 
offender on principles, and in a way, exactly similar. 

The case is different with the proper human faculties. 
Benevolence, contemplating outrage and murder, disapprove! 



UXDER THE NATURAL LAWS. fc£7 

f them because they are hostile to its inherent constitution, 
nd because they occasion calamities to those who are their 
bjects, and misery to the perpetrators themselves. Consci- 
ntiousness is pained by the perception of theft, because its 
very nature revolts at every infringement of right, and be- 
cause justice is essential to the welfare of all intelligent beings. 
Veneration is offended at reckless insult and indignity, be- 
cause its desire is to respect the intelligent creatures of the 
God whom it adores, believing that they are all the objects of 
his love. When crime is presented to the moral sentihients, 
therefore, they all ardently and instinctively desire that it 
should be stopped, and its recurrence prevented, just because 
it is in direct opposition to their very nature : and this im- 
pression on their part is not dependent on the power of the 
criminal to offend or to forbear. Benevolence grieves at death 
inflicted by a madman, and calls aloud that it should be 
averted ; Conscientiousness disavows all theft, although com- 
mitted by an idiot, and requires that he should be restrained ; 
while Veneration recoils at the irreverences even of the 
phrensied. The circumstance of the offenders being involun- 
tary agents, quite incapable of restraining their propensities, 
does not alter the aversion of the moral faculties to their 
actions; and the reasons of this are obvious: first, these 
faculties hate evil because it is contrary to their nature, from 
whatever source it springs; and, secondly, the circumstance 
of the aggressor being a necessary agent, does not diminish 
the calamity inflicted on the sufferer. It is as painful tc be 
killed by a madman as by a deliberate assassin ; and it is as 
destructive to property to be robbed by a cujining idiot, as by 
an acute and practised thief. 

We perceive, therefore, as the first feature of the moral 
and intellectual law, that the higher sentiments, absolutely 
and in all circumstances, declare against offences, and demand 
imperatively that they shall be brought to an end. 

There is a great difference, however, between the meant 
which they suggest for accomplishing this object, and those 
prompted by the propensities. The latter, as I have said, 
blindly inflict animal resentment without the slightest regard 
to the causes which led to the crime, or the consequence* of 
the punishment. They seize the aggressor, and worry, bite, 
or strangle him ; and there they begin and terminate theii 
operations. 

The moral and intellectual faculties, on the other hand 
17 2 * 



§58 ON PUNISHMENT INFLICTED 

embrace even the criminal himself within the range of their 
sympathies. Benevolence desires to render him virtuous, 
and thereafter happy, as well as to rescue his victim. Venera- 
tion desires that he should be treated as a man ; and Consci- 
entiousness declares that it cannot with satisfaction acquiesce 
in any administration towards him that does not tend to 
remove the motives of his misconduct, and to prevent thei 
recurrence. The first step, then; which the moral and intel 
lectual faculties combine in demanding, is a full expositio 
of the causes of the offence, and the consequences of th 
mode of treatment proposed. 

Let us, then, pursue this investigation ; and here it may be 
observed, that we are now in condition to do so with some- 
thing like a chance of success ; for by the aid of Phrenology, 
we have obtained a tolerably clear view of the elementary 
faculties of the mind, and the effects of organization on their 
activity and vigor. 

The leading fact, then, which arrests our attention in this 
inquiry, is, that evert/ crime proceeds from an abuse of some 
faculty or other; and the question immediately arises, 
Whence originates the tendency to abuse 1 Phrenology en- 
ables us to answer, From three sources : first, from particular 
organs being too large and spontaneously active; secondly, 
from great excitement produced by external causes; or, thirdly, 
from ignorance of what are uses and what are abuses of the 
faculties. 

The moral and intellectual powers next demand, What is 
the cause of particular organs being too large and active in 
individuals 1 Phrenology, for answer, points to the law of 
hereditary descent, by which the organs most energetic in the 
parents determine those which shall predominate in the child. 
Intellect then infers that, according to this view, certain indi- 
viduals are unfortunate at birth, in having received organs 
from their parents so ill proportioned, that abuse of some of 
them is almost an inevitable consequence if they are left to 
the sole guidance of their own suggestions. Phrenology re- 
plies, that the fact appears to be exactly so. In the Museum 
of the Phrenological Society is exhibibited a large assemblage 
of skulls and casts of the heads of criminals, collected from 
Europe, Asia, Africa, and America ; and an undeniable fea- 
ture in them all, is a great preponderance of the organs of 
the animal faculties over those of the moral sentiments and 
intellect 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 259 

Tn the next place, threat excitement from external causes 
may arise from the individual being pressed by animal want, 
stimulated by intoxicating liquors, or seduced by evil example, 
and from a variety of similar influences. 

And, thirdly, abuses may arise from sheer want of informa- 
tion concerning the constitution of the mind and its relations 
to external objects. Persecution for opinion, for example, i? 
a crime obviously referable to this source. 

I have examined the cerebral development of a considerable 
umber of criminals, and inquired into the external circum- 
stances in which they had been placed, and have no hesitation 
in saying, that if, in the case of every offender, the three 
sources of crime here enumerated were investigated, reported 
on, and published, the conviction would become irresistible 
that the individual was the victim of his nature and external 
condition, and penitentiaries would be resorted to as the only 
means of at once abating crime and satisfying the moral 
feelings of the community. The public err through igno- 
rance, and knowledge only is needed, to ensure their going 
into the right path. 

Moreover, intellect perceives, and the moral sentimen s 
acknowledge, that these causes exist independantly of the 
will of the offender. The criminal, for example, is not the 
cause of the unfortunate preponderance of the animal organs 
In his own brain ; neither is he the creator of the external 
circumstances which lead his propensities into abuse, or of 
the ignorance in which he is involved. Nevertheless, the 
moral and intellectual faculties of the indifferent spectator of 
his condition do not, on this account, admit that he ought, 
either for his own sake or for that of society, to be permitted 
to proceed in an unrestricted course of crime. They abso- 
lutely insist on arresting his progress, and their first question 
is, How may this best be done 1 Intellect answers, By re- 
moving the causes which produce the offences. 

The first cause — the great preponderance of the animal 
organs — cannot, by any means yet known, be summarily 
removed. Intellect, therefore, points out another alternative — 
that of supplying, by moral and physical restraint, the control 
which, in a brain better constituted, is afforded by large moral 
and intellectual organs; in short, of placing the offender 
under such a degree of effective control as absolutely to pre- 
vent the abuses of his faculties. Benevolence acknowledges 
>js proceeding to be kind, Veneration to be respectful, and 



260 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

Conscientiousness to be just, at once to the offender himseli 
and to society ; and Intellect perceives that, whenever it is 
adopted, it will form an important step towards preventing a 
repetition of crimes. 

The second cause, viz. great excitement from without, ma) 
be removed by withdrawing the individual from the influence 
of the unfavorable external circumstances to which he is 
exposed. The very restraint and control which serve to effect 
the first object, will directly tend to accomplish this second ona 
at the same time. 

The third cause — namely, ignorance — may be removed by 
conveying instruction to the intellectual powers. 

If these principles be sound, the measures now recom- 
mended ought, when viewed in all their consequences, to be 
not only the most just and benevolent, but at the same time 
the most advantageous that could be adopted. Let us con- 
trast their results with those of the animal method. 

Under the animal system, as we have already seen, no 
measures except the excitement of terror, are taken to prevent 
the commission of crime. Under the moral plan, as soon 
as a tendency to abuse the faculties appeared in any indi- 
vidual, instant means of prevention would be resorted to, 
because the sentiments could not be satisfied unless this weie 
done. Under the animal system, no inquiry is made into the 
future proceedings of the offender, and he is turned loose 
upon society under the unabated influence of all the causes 
which led to his infringement of the law; and as effects 
never cease while their causes continue to operate, he repeats 
his offence, and becomes the object of a new animal infliction. 
Under the moral system, the causes would be removed, and 
the evil effects would cease. 

Under the animal system, the propensities of the offender 
and society are maintained in habitual excitement; for the 
punishment proceeds from the animal faculties, and is like- 
wise addiessed to them. Flogging, for instance, proceeds 
from Pestructiveness, and is addressed solely to sensation 
and fear. The tread-mill springs from Destructiveness in a 
milder form, and as its sole object is to cause annoyance to 
the offender, it is obviously addressed only to Cautiousness 
and his selfish feelings. Hanging and decapitation unde- 
niably spring from Destructiveness, and are administered as 
terrors to the propensities of persons criminally disposed. 
These punishments, again, especially the last, are calculated 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 261 

lo gratify the animal faculties, and none else, in the specta- 
tors who witness them. The execution of a criminal obvi- 
ously interests and excites Destructiveness, Cautiousness, and 
Self-Esteem, in the beholder, and nothing can be fktther 
removed than such exhibitions from the proper food of Be- 
nevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness. 

Under the moral system, again, the faculties exercised and 
addressed in restraining and instructing the offender, are, as 
exclusively as possible, the human powers. The propensities 
are employed merely as the servants of the moral sentiments 
in accomplishing their benignant purposes, and Benevolence 
is as actively engaged in behalf of the offender as of society at 
large. The whole influence of the proceeding is ameliorating 
and elevating. 

Under the animal system, the offspring of parents who 
have been recently engaged in either suffering, inflicting, or 
witnessing punishment, inherit, by the organic law, large and 
active animal organs, occasioned by the excitement of these 
organs in the parents. Thus a public execution, from the 
violent stimulus which it produces in the lower faculties of 
the spectators, may, within twenty-four hours of its exhibi- 
tion, be the direct cause of a new crop of victims for the 
gallows. 

Under the moral system, children born of parents actively 
engaged in undergoing, executing, or witnessing the elevating 
and ennobling process of moral reformation, will, by the 
organic law, inherit an increased development of the moral 
and intellectual organs, and be farther removed than their 
parents from the risk of lapsing into crime. 

Under the animal system, spectators of crime, and accom- 
plices, need to be bribed with large rewards to induce them 
to communicate their knowledge of the offence ; and wit- 
nesses require to be compelled by penalties to bear testimony 
to what they have seen concerning it. Many will recollect 
Jie affecting picture of mental agony drawn by the author of 
Waverlv, when Jeanie Deans, at the bar of the High Court 
of Justiciary, gives evidence against her sister, which was to 
deprive that sister of life. Parallel cases occur too frequently 
ii actual experience. The real cause of this aversion to be- 
tray, and internal repugnance to give evidence, is, that the 
moral sentiments are revolted by the delivery of the culprit 
to the cruelty of animal resentment. 

Under the moral system, the higher sentiments and intel- 



262 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLIt, TED 

lect of the spectator of a crime, and those of the nearest 
relatives of the offender, would unite with those of society 
at large in an unanimous desire to deliver him up with the 
utmost speed to the ameliorating influence of moral treat- 
ment, as the highest benevolence even to himself. 

Under the animal system, the office of public executioner 
is odious, execrable, and universally contemned. If it were 
necessary by the Creator's institutions, it would presei t the 
extraordinary anomaly of a necessary duty being execrated 
by the moral sentiments. This would be a direct inconsistency 
between the dictates of the superior faculties and the arrange- 
ment of the external world. But the animal executioner is 
not acknowledged as necessary by the human faculties. 
Under the moral system, the criminal would be committed to 
persons whose duties would be identical with those of the 
clergyman, the physician, and the teacher. These are the 
executioners under the moral law ; and, just because their 
avocations are highly grateful to the superior sentiments, 
they are the most esteemed of mankind. 

The highest and the most impoitant object of the long 
exposition of the principles of punishment under the natural 
laws, remains to be unfolded. 

We are all liable to abuse our faculties ; and the inquiry is 
exceedingly interesting, what, in our case, are the causes of 
the infringement of the moral law. The offences wdiich we 
daily commit, are neither more nor less than minor degrees 
of abuse of the very same faculties of which crimes are the 
greater. For example, if in private life we backbite or slan- 
der our neighbor, we commit abuses of Self-Esteem and De- 
structiveness, which, if increased merely in intensity without 
at all changing their nature, might end, as in Ireland, in 
maiming his cattle, or, as in Spain and Italy, in murdering 
him outright. If in any transaction of life we deliberately 
give false representations as to any article we have for sale, 
or overcharge it in price, this is just a minor abuse of Secre- 
tiveness and Acquisitiveness acting in absence of the moral 
sentiments, of which abuse pocket-picking and stealing are 
higher degrees. I need not carry the parallel farther. It is 
so obvious that every offence against the moral law is an 
abuse of some faculty or other, and that great crimes are 
jnerely great abuses, and smaller offences more slight aberra- 
tions, that every one must perceive the fact to be so. 

Reverting to what I observed in regard to crime, I repeat 



UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS. 2CJf 

that every infringement of the moral law, the smallest* as 
well as the greatest, is denounced by the moral sentiments 
and intellect; just because it is opposed to their nature, and 
they desire absolutely to bring all abuses to an end, from 
whatever source they spring, and be they voluntary or in- 
voluntary. 

Animal resentment is, according to the present practice of 
society, resorted to as the chief method of dealing with the 
minor, just as it is with the higher abuses of our faculties 
If one gentleman insults another, the offended party makes 
no inquiry into the state of mind and other causes that pro- 
duced the insult, but proceeds to knock him on the head, to 
challenge and thereafter to shoot him, or to prosecute him in 
a jury court, and inflict pain by depriving him of money. 
These are the common methods by which men inflict animal 
retribution on each other, and in essential character they do 
not much differ from those followed by the lower creatures. 

I do not say that these proceedings are absolutely without 
beneficial effect. The animal faculties are selfish, and these 
inroads upon their enjoyment have undoubtedly a tendency 
to check them. It is painful to a gentleman to be knocked 
down or shot, and, in consequence, many individuals whose 
moral principles are low, are induced so to manage matters as 
to avoid these forms of retaliation, who would not be re- 
strained from insulting their neighbors by the dictates of their 
own feelings. But here the benefit terminates. The inflic- 
tion of the chastisement excites only the animal faculties of 
the offended party, and it is addressed exclusively to the ani- 
mal part of the offender's mind. Habitual morality, however, 
cannot exist without supreme activity of the moral senti- 
ments; and the whole code of animal law, and animal 
punishment, does nothing whatever to establish this as a 
permanent condition of mind. 

Under the moral and intellectual law, every thing is di£ 
ferent. The intellectual faculties inquire into the causes of 
abuses, and the moral sentiments desire to remove them with 
kindness and respect even for the offender himself. If one 
person insults another, the intellect, aided by Phrenology, 
perceives that he must of necessity do so either from extreme 
predominance of Combativeness, Destructiveness, and Self- 
Esteem in his own brain, so that he has an instinctive ten- 
dency to insult, just as some ill-natured dogs and horses have 
a tendency to bite without provocation ; or, secmidly, from 



264 ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

excessive stimulus from without — that is to say, from soma 
aggression offered to these lower organs by other people ; or 
thirdly, from intellectual ignorance — that is, erroneously sup- 
posing unreal motives and intentions in the party whom he 
insults. If one person cheat another, intellect, with the 
assistance of Phrenology, perceives that he can do so only 
because Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness predominate in 
him over Conscientiousness, because the external temptation 
to cheat is too powerful for his combination of faculties to 
resist, or because he is ignorant that cheating is equally fatal 
to his own interest as injurious to that of his victim. In 
short, the conclusion is irresistibly come to, that no abuse of 
the animal faculties can be committed that may not be traced 
to these or similar causes. 

But intellect and the moral sentiments desire to remove the 
causes as the most effectual way of putting an end to the 
effects, and their method is one congenial to their own consti- 
tution. If a man is by nature irritable, and prone to injure 
every one with whom he comes into contact, they desire mos* 
sedulously to remove every cause that may tend to exaspe- 
rate his propensities, and also to surround him with a pun 
moral and intellectual atmosphere. If he is exposed to tempta- 
tion, they desire to withdraw it; if he is misinformed, igno 
rant, or deceived, they desire to instruct him and give him 
correct information. After we have suffered injury from ano- 
ther, if we perceive the causes from which it proceeded to be 
really such as I have now explained, and if we comprehend 
and believe in the supremacy of the moral law, it will be im- 
possible for us to prefer the method of redress by animal 
resentment. 

The question naturally presents itself, What is the distinc- 
tion between right and wrong, under this system 1 If offences 
proceed from unfortunate development of brain, not fashioned 
by the individual himself — from external temptations which 
he did not make — or from want of knowledge which he nevei 
had it in his power to possess — how are the distinctions be- 
tween right and wrong, merit and demerit, to be explicated 
and maintained 1 The answer is simple. 

The natural distinction betvjeen right and vrrong, so far 
as man is concerned, depends on the constitution of the mor&l 
and intellectual faculties. The act of wantonly killing ano- 
ther is wrong, because it is in direct opposition to the dictaVr* 
pf Benevolence. The act of appropriating to ourselves eflecU 



UNDER TUE NATURAL LAWS. 265 

belonging to another is wrong, because it is distinctly de- 
nounced by Conscientiousness; and so with all other mis- 
deeds. The authority oi the moral law, in forbidding these 
offences, depends on the whole arrangements of creation 
being constituted to enforce its dictates. If Benevolence and 
Conscientiousness denounce murder, and if the whole other 
faculties of the mind, and the external order of things, har- 
monize with their dictates and combine to punish the offender, 
the foundation and sanctions of the moral law appear abun- 
dantly strong. It has been objected, that, in Tartary, to steal 
from strangers is honorable ; but Dr. T. Brown has well an- 
swered this objection. There are more principles in the mind 
than Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscientiousness ; and 
it is quite possible to misinform the intellect, and thereby mis- 
direct* the propensities and sentiments. For example, the 
Tartars are taught to believe that all men beyond their own 
tribes are their enemies, and would rob and murder them if 
they could ; and, of course, as long as this intellectual con- 
viction lasts, strangers become the objects of their animal 
resentment. Every foreigner is, in their eyes, a criminal, 
clearly convicted of deliberate purpose to rob and murder. 
In Britain, under Lord Ellenborough's act, when men are 
convicted in a court of this intention, they are delivered over 
to the hangman to be executed ; and we might as well main- 
tain, as a general proposition, that the English are fond of 
hanging one another, as that the Tartars approve of robbery 
and murder. Strangers whom the latter maltreat in this 
manner, actually stand convicted in their minds of an inten- 
tion of using them in the same way if they could. The real 
method of arriving at a correct view of the question is to 
suppose the conviction complete in a Tartar's mind, that 
other men love him and make him an object of their most 
sedulous benevolence, and then ask him whether he approves 
of robbing and murdering a benefactor. There is no instance 
of human nature, in a state of sanity, regarding such a deed 
as virtuous. The moral law, therefore, when cleared of other 
principles that may act along with-it, but are not part of it, is 
obviously universal and inllexible in its dictates. 

The views contained in this chapter were printed and dis- 
tributed among a few friends in 1827, and I was favored by 
tn^m with several remarks. Two of these appear to me to 
oient a reply. 

It is objected, that, according to the moral system of treating 
23 



266 ON" PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED 

offenders, punishment would be abrogated And crime en 
couraged. 

I respectfully answer, that if this system be right in itself 
and suited to the nature of man, it will carry m itself all the 
punishment that will be needed, or that, c^n serve any bene- 
ficial end. I believe that to an individual whose mind con- 
sists chiefly of animal propensities and intellect- -confine- 
ment, compulsory labor, and the entailment of moral con- 
duct, will be highly disagreeable, and that this is the punish- 
ment which the Creator designed should attend that unfor- 
tunate combination of mental qualities. It is analogous to 
the pain of a wound ; the object of which is, to induce the 
patient to avoid injuring himself again. The irksomeness 
and suffering to a criminal inseparable from confinement and 
forced labor, are intended as. inducements to him to avoid 
infringements of the motal l&w ; and when perceived by him- 
self to arise from the connexion established by the Creator 
between crime and the most humane means of restraining it, 
he will learn to submit to the infliction, without those rebel- 
lious feelings which are generally excited by pure animal 
retribution. It appears to me that the call for more suffering 
than would accompany the moral method of treatment, pro- 
ceeds to a great extent from the yet untamed barbarism of 
of our own minds ; just as it was the savageness of the 
hearts of our ancestors which led them to regard torture and 
burning as necessary in their administration of criminal 
justice. In proportion as the higher sentiments shall gain 
ascendency among men, severity will be less in demand, and 
its inutility will be more generally perceived. The Ameri- 
cans, in their penitentiaries, have set an admirable example 
to Europe in regard to criminal legislation. Their views still 
admit of improvement, but they have entered on the right 
path by which success is to be attained. Dr. Caldwell of 
Lexington has offered them excellent counsel, which I hope 
they will appreciate and follow. 

Another objection is, that the views now advocated, even 
supposing them to be true, are Utopian, and cannot be car- 
ried into effect in the present condition of society. I deny 
the first branch of this objection, but admit the second to be 
well founded. No system of morals which is true can be 
Utopian — this term being understood to mean visionary and 
impracticable. But a true system may not be reducible to 
practice, on its first announcement, by a people who do not 



i;Xl)KR TIIL N'ATl UAL LAWS. 207 

know one jot. of its principles, and whose guides sedulously 
divert their minds from studying it. Christianity itself has 
not yet been generally practised ; hut does any rational man 
on this account denounce it as Utopian and worthless ? It 
would be folly to expect judges and juries to abandon the 
existing practice of criminal jurisprudence, and to adopt that 
which is here recommended, belore they, and the sooiety for 
whom they act, understand and approve of its principles; and 
no one who bears in mind by what slow and laborious efforts 
truth makes its way, and how long a period is necessary- be- 
fore it can develope itself in practice, will expect any new 
6ystem to triumph in the age in which it was first promul- 
gated. I have frequently repeated in this work, that, by the 
moral law, we cannot enjoy the full fruits even of our own 
intelligence and virtue, until our neighbors have been ren- 
dered as wise and amiable as ourselves. No reasonable man, 
therefore, can expect to see the principles expounded in this 
work, although true, generally diffused and adopted in society, 
until the natural means of communicating a knowledge of 
them, and producing a general conviction of their truth and 
utility, shall have been perseveringly used for a period suffi- 
cient to acco?nplish this end. In the mean time, the esta- 
blished practice of society must be supported, if not respected ; 
and he is no friend to the real progress of mankind, who, the 
moment after he has sown his moral principles, would at- 
tempt to gather the fruit of them before he has allowed sum- 
mer and autumn to bring the produce to maturity. The 
rational philanthropist will zealously teach his principles, 
and introduce them into practice as favorable opportunities 
occur : not doubting that he will thereby sooner accomplish 
his object, than by making premature attempts at realizing 
them, which must inevitably end in disappointment.* 



• The leading ideas expounded in this chapter have been most ablv 
and e'oquentlv followed by Dr. Charles Caldwell, Professor of the 
Institutes of Medicine in the University of I exintzton, Kentucky, in 
his " New Views of Penitentiary Discipline, and Moral Education 
and Reformation of Criminals," publi-hed at Philadelphia in 1899, 
and reprint: (I in the Phrenological Journal, vol viii.ip :»85, 493. Mr. 
Simpson also has treated the subject with srreat ability ir the same 
journal, vol. ix. p 481 , and in the appendix to his work on the ' : Ne- 
cessity of Popular Education"— a work in which he has expounded 
and applied many principles of the present treatise with much acute. 
ness and felicit/of illustration. 



26$ MORAL ADVANTAGES 



SECT. II. MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PUXTSHMEKT. 

After the intellect and moral sentiments have been brought 
to recognize the principles of the Divine administration, so 
much wisdom, benevolence, and justice, are discernible in 
the natural laws, that our whole nature is ameliorated in 
consequence of undergoing the punishments annexed to them. 
Punishment endured by one individual also serves to warn 
others against transgression. These facts afford another proof 
that a grand object of the arrangements of creation is the 
improvement of the moral and intellectual nature of man. 
So strikingly conspicuous, indeed, is the ameliorating inilu- 
ence of suffering, that many persons have supposed this to be 
the primary object for which it is sent; a notion which, with 
great deference, I cannot help regarding as unfounded in 
principle and dangerous in practice. If evils and misfortunes 
are mere mercies of Providence, it follows that a headache 
consequent on a debauch is not intended to prevent repetition 
of drunkenness, so much as to prepare the debauchee for "the 
invisible world ;" and that shipwreck in a crazy vessel is not 
designed to render the merchant more cautious, but to lead 
him to heaven. 

It is undeniable, that in innumerable instances pain and 
sorrow are the direct consequences of our own misconduct ; 
at the same time it is obviously benevolent in the Deity to 
render them beneficial directly, as a warning against future 
transgression, and indirectly, as a means of leading to the 
purification of the mind. Nevertheless, if we' shall imagine 
that in some instances it is dispensed as a direct punishment 
for particular transgressions, and in others only on account 
of sin in general, and with a view of ameliorating the spirit 
of the sufferer, we shall ascribe inconsistency to the Creator, 
and expose ourselves to the danger of attributing our own 
afflictions to his favor, and those of others to his wrath; 
thus fostering in our minds self-conceit and uncbaritable- 
ness. Individuals who entertain the belief that bad health, 
worldly ruin, and sinister accidents, befalling them, are 
not punishments for infringement of the laws of nature, 
but particular manifestations of the love of the Creator to- 
wards themselves, make slight inquiry into the natural 
causes of their miseries, and bestow few efforts to remove 
them. In consequence, the chastisements endured by them 
neither correct their own conduct, nur deter others from com* 



OF PUNISHMENT. 2G9 

mitting similar transgressions. Some religious sects, who 
espouse these notions, literally act upon them, and refuse to 
inoculate with the cow-pox to escape contagion, or take other 
means of avoiding natural calamities. Regarding these as 
dispensations of Providence sent to prepare them for a future 
world, they conceive that the more that befall them the better. 
Farther, these ideas, besides being repugnant to the common 
sense of mankind, are at variance with the principle that the 
world is arranged so as to favor virtue and discountenance 
vice; because iavoring virtue means obviously that the favored 
virtuous will positively enjoy more happiness, and negatively 
sutFer fewer misfortunes, than the vicious. The view, there- 
fore, now advocated, appears less exceptionable, viz. that 
punishment serves a double purpose — directly to warn us 
against transgression, and indirectly (when rightly appre- 
hended) to subdue our lower propensities, and purify and 
vivify our moral and intellectual powers. 

Bishop Butler coincides in this interpretation of natural 
calamities. " Now," says he, " in the present state, all which 
we enjoy, and a great part of what we suffer, is put in our 
own power.* For pleasure and pain are the consequences 
of our actions ; and we are endued by the Author of our 
nature with capacities of foreseeing these consequences. ,, 
" I know not that we have any one kind or degree of enjoy « 
ment, but by the means of our own actions. And, by pru~ 
doice and care, we may, for the most part, pass our days in 
tolerable ease and quiet : or, on the contrary, we may, by 
rashness, un^overned passion, wilfulness, or even by negli- 
gence, make ourselves as miserable as ever we please. And 
many do please to make themselves extremely miserable : ?'. «. 
they do what they know beforehand will make them so. 
They follow those ways, the fruit of which they know, by 
instruction, example, experience, will be disgrace, and poverty, 
and sickness, and untimely death. This every one observes 
to be the general course of things ; though it is to be allowed, 
we cannot find by experience, that all our sufferings are 
owing to our own follies." — Analogy, part i. ch. 2. In ac- 
cordance with this last remark, I have treated of hereditary 
diseases; and evils resulting from earthquakes, volcanoes, 
hurricanes, and other convulsions of nature, may be added 
to the same class. 



* These words are printed iu Italics in the original. 

23* 



270 TffOHAL ADVANTAGES 

It has been objected that such punishments as the breaking 
of an arm by a fall, are often so disproportionately severe, 
that, in appointing them, the Creator must have had in view 
Borne other and more important object than that of making 
them serve as mere motives to the observance of the physi- 
cal laws ; and that that object must be to influence the mind 
of the sufferer, and draw his attention to concerns of higher 
import. 

In answer I iemark, that the human body is liable to de- 
struction by severe injuries ; and that the degree of suffering, 
in general, bears a just proportion to the danger connected 
with the transgression. Thus, a slight surfeit is attended 
only with headache or geneial uneasiness, because it does 
not endanger life ; a fall on any muscular part of the body is 
followed either with no pain, or with only a slight indisposi- 
tion, for the reason that it is not seriously injurious to life ; 
but when a leg or arm is broken, the pain is intensely severe, 
because the bones of these limbs stand high in the scale of 
man. The human body is so framed that it may fall nine 
times and suffer little damage, but the tenth time a limb may 
be broken, which will entail a painful chastisement. Dy this 
arrangement the mind is kept alive to danger to such an ex- 
tent as to insure general safety, while at the same time it is 
not overwhelmed with terror by punishments too severe and 
too frequently repeated. In particular states of the body, a 
slight wound may be followed by inflammation and death ; 
but these are the results not simply of the wound, but cf a 
previous derangement of health, occasioned by departures 
from the organic laws. 

On the whole, therefore, no adequate reason appears for 
regarding the consequences of physical acciden s in any other 
light than as direct punishments for infringement of the natu- 
ral laws, and indirectly as a means of accomplishing moral 
and religious improvement. 

In the preceding chapters we have obtained glimpses of 
some of the sanctions of the moral law, which may be briefly 
recapitulated. If we obey it, many desirable results ensue. 
In the Jlrst place, we enjoy the highest gratifications of which 
our nature is susceptible, in habitual and sustained activity 
of our noblest faculties. Secondly, We become objects of 
esteem and affection to our fellow-men, and enjoy exalted 
social pleasure. Thirdly, Whatever we undertake t being 
projected in harmony with the course of nature, will prosper 



OF rUHlSHJfXHT. 27 

Fourthly, By observing the moral law, we shall place our 
•elves in the rao<t favorable condition for obeying the organic 
law, and then enjoy health of body and buoyancy of mind. 
Fifthly* By obeying the moral, intellectual, and organic laws, 
we shall place ourselves in the best condition for observing the 
physical laws, and thereby reap countless benefits conferred 
by them. 

To perceive, on the other hand, the penalties by which the 
Creator punishes infringements of the moral law, we need 
only to reverse the picture. There is denial of that elevated, 
refined, and steady enjoyment, which springs from the su- 
preme activity of the moral sentiments and intellect, and 
from the perception of the harmony between them and the 
institutions of creation. By infringing the moral law, we 
become objects of dislike and aversion to our fellow-men ; 
and this carries denial of gratification to many of our social 
faculties. Whatever we undertake in opposition to the moral 
law, being an enterprize against the course of nature, cannot 
succeed ; and its fruits must therefore be disappointment and 
vexation. Inattention to the moral and intellectual law inca- 
pacitates us for obedience to the organic and physical laws ; 
and sickness, pain, and poverty overtake us. The whole 
scheme of creation, then, appears constituted for the purpose 
of enforcing obedience to the moral law: virtue, religion, and 
happiness, seem to be founded in the inherent constitution of 
the human faculties, and the adaptation of the external world 
to them ; and not to depend on the will, the fancies, or the 
desires of man. 



CHAPTER \TI. 

ON THE COMBINED OPERATION OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 

Having now unfolded several of the natural laws, and 
their effects, and having also attempted to show that each is 
inflexible and independent in itself, and requires absolute 
obedience (so that a man who neglects the physical law will 
suffer the physical punishment, although ne may be very 
attentive to the moral law ; that one who infringes the organic 
law will suffer organic punishment, although he may obey 
the physical law ; and that a person who violates the moral 
law will suffer the moral punishment, although he should 
observe the other two), I proceed to show the mutual rela- 



272 MORAL ADVANTAGES 

ti on ship among these laws, and to adduce some instances of 
their joint operation. 

The defective administration of justice is a fertile source 
of human suffering in all countries ; yet it is surprising how 
rude are the arrangements which are still in use, even in a 
free and enlightened country, for accomplishing this import- 
ant end. 

A Scotch Jury in a civil cause, even in Edinburgh, fre- 
quently presents the following particulars for observation. 
It consists of twelve men, eight or ten of whom are collected 
from the country, within a distance of twenty or thirty miles 
of the capital. These individuals hold the plough, wield the 
hammer or hatchet, or carry on some other useful and re- 
spectable but laborious occupation, for six days in the week. 
Their muscular systems are in constant exercise, and their 
brains are rarely called on for any great exertion. They are 
iqot accustomed to read, beyond the bible and a weekly news- 
paper; they are still less in the habit of thinking; and in 
general they live much in the open air. 

In this condition they are placed in a jury box at ten in 
the morning, after having travelled probably from seven to 
twenty-five miles to reach the court: counsel address long 
speeches to them; numerous witnesses are examined; and 
the cause is branched out into complicated details of fact, and 
wire- worn distinctions in argument. The court is a small 
and ill-ventilated apartment, and in consequence is generally 
crowded and over-heated. Without being allowed to breathe 
fresh air or to take exercise or food, they are confined to their 
seats till eight or ten in the evening— when they retire to 
return a verdict, by which they may dispose of thousands of 
pounds, and in which they are required by law to be unani- 
mous. 

There is here a tissue of errors which could not exist for a 
day if the natural laws were generally understood. First, 
the daily habits and occupations of such jurors render their 
brains inactive, arid their intellects consequently incapable of 
attending to, and comprehending, complicated cases of fact 
and argument. Secondly, their memories cannot retain the 
facts, while their skill in penmanship and literature is not 
sufficient to enable them to take notes; and their reflecting 
faculties are not capable of generalizing. Their education 
and daily pursuits, therefore, do not furnish them with princi- 
ples of thinking, and power of mental action, sufficient to 



OF PUNISHMF.-NT. 273 

enable them to unravel the web of intricacies presented to 
their understandings. Thirdly, protracted confinement in a 
B apartment, amidst vitiated air, operates injuriously on the 
most vivacious temperaments: on such men it has ten fold 
A in lowering the action of the brain and inducing mental 
incapacity, because it is diametrically opposed to their usual 
condition. Add to these considerations, that occasionally a 
jury trial lasts two, three, or even four days, each of which 
presents a repetition of the circumstances here described ; and 
then the reader may judge whether such jurors are the fittest 
instruments, and in the best condition, for disposing of the 
fortunes of a people who boast of their love of justice, and 
of their admirable institutions for obtaining it 

The influence of the bodily condition of a human being on 
his mental capacity seems never to have entered the imagina- 
tions of our legistators as a matter of importance in the adminis- 
tration of justice. In the Circuit Courts of Scotland, the judges 
frequently sit for several days in succession in a crowded apart- 
ment, intently engaged in business, from ten o'clock in the 
morning till eight, ten, or twelve at night, without any proper 
Intermission or exercise. They go to their hotel at these late 
hours, dine, take wine, retire to bed, and next morning re- 
sume their seats on the bench. Now, by the laws of their 
nature, which never cease to operate, the effect of this con- 
duct is to impair the vigor of the moral and intellectual 
organs, and, by constiaint, want of exercise, and obstruction 
of the bodily functions, to irritate and exalt the activity of the 
animal organs; so that, at the close of a circuit, even the 
strongest and most estimable and talented individual is physi- 
cally deteriorated, and mentally incapacitated for the distribu- 
tion of justice, compared with himself when he began his 
labors. It is accordingly matter of observation, that in pro- 
portion as a long and heavy session in circuit advances, irri- 
*ability, impatience, and intellectual obscuration, appear in 
the judges. The accused who go to trial first, therefore, have 
a higher chance of obtaining justice, than those who appear 
last on the roll. 

In these instances there are evident infringements of the 
organic and moral laws ; and the combined result is the mal- 
administration of justice, of which the country so loudly 
complains. The proper remedies will be found in educating 
ifoc people more effectually, in training them to the exercise 
o{ their mental faculties, and in observing the organic laws 
18 



274 MORAL ADVANTAGES 

in the structure of court rooms, and in the proceedings thai 
take place within them. 

Another example of the combined operation of the natural 
laws is afforded by the great fires which occurred in Edinburgh 
in November, 1824, when the Parliament Square and a part 
of the High Street were consumed. That calamity may be 
viewed in the following light : — The Creator constituted Eng- 
land and Scotland with such qualities, and placed them in 
such relationship, that the inhabitants of both kingdoms 
would be most happy in acting towards each other, and pur- 
suing their separate vocations, under the supremacy of the 
moral sentiments. We have lived to see this practised, and 
to reap the reward. But the ancestors of the two nations did 
not, believe in this constitution of the world, and they prefer- 
red acting according to the suggestions of the propensities ; 
that is to say, they waged furious wars, and committed wasting 
devastations on each other's properties and lives. It is obvi- 
ous from history, that the two nations were equally ferocious, 
and delighted reciprocally in each other's calamities. This 
was clearly a violent infringement of the moral law; and one 
effect of it was to render the possession of a stronghold an 
object of paramount importance. The hill on which the Old 
Town of Edinburgh is built, was naturally surrounded by 
marshes, and presented a perpendicular front to the west, 
capable of being crowned with a castle. It was appropriated 
with avidity, and the metropolis of Scotland was founded 
there, obviously and undeniably under the inspiration purely 
of the animal faculties. It was fenced round with ramparts, 
built to exclude the fierce warriors who then inhabited the 
country lying south of the Tweed, and also to protect the 
inhabitants from the feudal banditti who infested their own 
soil. The space within the walls, however, was limited and 
narrow ; the attractions to the spot were numerous ; and to 
make the most of it, our ancestors erected the enormous 
masses of high, confused, and crowded buildings which now 
compose the High Street, and the wynds, or alleys, on its 
two sides. These abodes, however, were constructed, to a 
great extent, of timber; for not only the joists and floors, but 
the partitions between the rooms, were made of massive 
wood. Our ancestors did all this in the perfect knowledge of 
the physical law, that wood ignited by fire not only is con- 
sumed itself, but envelopes in inevitable destruction every 
combustible object within its influence Farther, their sue- 



OF PUNISHMENT. 275 

cessors, even when the necessity for close building had ceased, 
persevered in the original error; and, though well knowing 
that every year added to the age of such fabrics, increasea 
their liability to burn, they not only allowed them to be occu- 
pied as shops filled with paper, spirits, and other highly com- 
bustible materials, but let the upper floors for brothels — intro- 
ducing thereby into the heart of this magazine of conflagra- 
tion the most reckless and immoral of mankind. The con- 
summations was the two tremendous fires of November 1824 
(the one originating in a whiskey cellar, and the other in a 
garret-brothel), which consumed the Parliament Square and 
a portion of the High Street, destroying property to the ex- 
tent of many thousands of pounds, and spreading misery and 
ruin over a considerable part of the population of Edinburgh. 
Wonder, consternation, and awe, were forcibly excited at the 
vastness of the calamity ; and in the sermons that were 
preached, and the dissertations that were written upon it, 
much was said of the inscrutable ways of Providence, that 
sent such visitations on the people, enveloping the innocent 
and the guilty in one common sweep of destruction. 

According to the exposition of the ways of Providence 
which I have ventured to give, there was nothing wonderful, 
nothing vengeful, nothing arbitrary, in the whole occurrence. 
The only reason for surprise was, that it did not take place 
generations before. The necessity for these fabrics originated 
in gross violation of the moral law ; they were constructed in 
high contempt of the physical law ; and, latterly, the moral 
law was set at defiance, by placing in them inhabitants aban- 
doned to the worst habits of recklessness and intoxication. 
The Creator had bestowed on men faculties to perceive all 
this, and to avoid the calamity, whenever they chose to exert 
them ; and the destruction that ensued was the punishment 
of following the propensities, in preference to the dictates of 
intellect and morality. The object of the destruction, as a 
natural event, was to lead men to avoid repetition of the 
oilences : but the principles of the divine government are no 
yet comprehended. Acquisitiveness whispers that more mo 
ney may be made of houses consisting of five or six floors 
under one roof, than of houses consisting of only two or 
three ; and erections the very counterparts of the former, 
have since reared their heads on the spots where the others 
stood, and, sooner or later, they also will be overtaken by the 
natural laws, which never slumber or sleep. 



276 MORAL ADYANTiGES 

The true method of arriving at a sound view of calamities 
•f this kind, is to direct our attention, in the first instance, to 
the law ot nature, from the operation of which they have 
originated ; then to find out the uses and advantages of that 
law, when observed ; and to discover whether or not the evils 
under consideration have arisen from violation of it. In the 
present instance, we ought never to lose sight of the fact, that 
the houses in question stood erect, and the furniture in safety, 
by the very same law of gravitation which made them topple 
to the foundation when it was infringed ; and that mankind 
enjoy all the benefits which result from the combustibility ot 
the timber as fuel, by the very same law which makes it, when 
unduly ignited, the food of a destructive conflagration. 

This instance affords a striking illustration of the manner 
in which the physical and organic laws are constituted in 
harmony with, and in subserviency to, the moral law. We 
see clearly that the leading cause of the construction of such 
erections as the houses in the Old Town of Edinburgh (with 
the deprivation of free air, and liability to combustion, that 
attend them) arose from the excessive predominance of Com- 
bativeness, Destructives ess, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness, 
in our ancestors ; and although the ancient personages who 
erected these monuments of animal supremacy had no con- 
ception that, in doing so, they were laying the foundations of 
a severe punishment to themselves and their posterity —yet 
when we compare the comforts and advantages that would 
have accompanied dwellings constructed under the inspira- 
tion of Benevolence, Ideality, and enlightened intellect, with 
the contaminating, debasing, and dangerous effects of their 
actual workmanship, we perceive most clearly that our ances- 
tors were really the instruments of chastising their own trans- 
gressions, and of transmitting that chastisement to their pos- 
terity so long as the animal supremacy shall be prolonged. 

Another example maybe given. Men, by uniting under 
one leader, may, in virtue of the social law, acquire pro- 
digious advantages to themselves, which singly they could 
not obtain and, as formerly stated, the condition under 
which the benefits of that law are permitted is, that the 
leader shall know and obey the natural laws connected with 
his enterprise : If he neglect these, then the same principle 
which gives the social body the benefit of his observing them, 
involves it in the punishment of his infringement ; and this 
is just, because, under the natural law, the leader must neces* 



OF rrXTSHMENT. 271 

narily be chosen by his followers, and they are rcsponsib.e for 
not attending to his natural qualities. Some illustrations of 
the consequences of neglect of this law may be stated, in 
which the mixed operation of the physical and moral laws 
will appear. 

During the French war, a squadron of English ships was 
sent to the Baltic with military stores, and in returning home 
up the North Sea, they were beset, for two or three days, by 
a thick fog. It was about the middle of December, and no 
correct knowledge of their exact situation was possessed. 
Some of the commanders proposed lying-to all night, and 
proceeding only during day, to avoid running ashore un- 
awares. The commodore was exceedingly attached to his 
wife and family, and stating his determination to pass Christ- 
mas with them in England if possible, ordered that the ships 
should sail straight on their voyage. The very same night 
they all struck on a sand-bank off the coast of Holland ; two 
ships of the line were dashed to pieces, and every man on 
board perished. The third ship, drawing less water, was 
forced over the bank by the waves and stranded on the beach ; 
the crew was saved, but led to a captivity of many years' 
duration. Now, these vessels were destroyed under the physi- 
cal laws ; but this calamity owed its origin to the predomi- 
nance of the animal over the moral and intellectual faculties 
of the commodore. The gratification which he sought to 
obtain was individual and selfish ; and if his Benevolence, 
Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, had been as 
alert as his domestic affections, and carried as forcibly home 
to his mind the welfare of the men under his charge as that 
of his own family ; nay, if these faculties had been suffi- 
ciently alive to see the danger to which he exposed even his 
own life, and the happiness of his wife and children — he 
never could have followed the precipitate course which con- 
signed himself, and so many brave men, to a watery grave, 
within a few hours after his resolution was formed. 

Some years ago, the Ogle Castle East Indiaman was offered 
a pilot coming up the Channel, but the captain refused assist- 
ance, professing his own skill to be sufficient In a few 
hours the ship ran aground #n a saaA bank, and every hu- 
man being on board perished in the waves. This accident 
also arose from the physical laws, but the unfavorable opera- 
tion of it sprang from Self-Esteem, pretending to knowledge 
which the intellect did not possess; and as it is only by en> 
24 



27S ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

ploying the latter that obedience can be yielded to the physreaj 
laws, the destruction of the ship was indirectly the conse- 
quence of the infringement of the moral and intellectual laws. 

An old sailor, whom I met on the Queensferry passage, 
told me that he had been nearly fifty years at sea, and once 
was in a fifty gun ship in the West Indies. The captain, he 
said, was a " fine man ;" he knew the climate, and foresaw a 
hurricane coming, by its natural signs ; — on one occasion, in 
particular, he struck the topmasts, lowered the yards, lashed 
the guns, and made each man supply himself with food for 
thirty-six hours ; and scarcely was this done when the hurri- 
cane came. The ship lay for four hours on her beam ends 
in the water, but all was prepared ; the men were kept m 
vigor during the storm, and fit for every exertion ; the ship 
at last righted, suffered little damage, and proceeded on her 
voyage. The fleet which she convoyed was dispersed, and a 
great number of the ships foundered. Here we see the bene- 
fits accruing from the supremacy of the moral and intellectual 
faculties, and discover to what a surprising extent these pre- 
sent a guarantee even against the fury of the physical ele- 
ments in their highest state of agitation. 

A striking illustration of the kind of protection afforded by 
high moral and intellectual qualities, even amidst the most 
desperate physical circumstances, is furnished by the following 
letter, written by the late Admiral Lord Ex mi uth to a friend. 
" Why do you ask me to relate the wreck of the Dutton V* 
says his lordship. "Susan (Lady Exmouth) and I were 
driving to a dinner party at Plymouth, when we saw crowds 
running to the Hoe ; and /earning it was a wreck, I left the 
carriage to take her on, and joined the crowd. I saw the 
loss of the whole five or six hundred men was inevitable 
without somebody to direct them, for the last officer was 
pulled on shore as I reached the surf. I urged their return, 
which was refused; upon which I made the rope fast to my 
self, and was hauled through the surf on board — established 
order, and did not leave her until every soul was saved but 
the boatswain, who would not go before me. I got safe, and 
so did he, and the ship went all to pieces.' , 

Indeed, there is reason to believe that the human intellect 
will, in time, be able, by means of science and observation, to 
arrive at a correct anticipation of approaching storms, and 
thus obtain protection against their effects. The New Zea- 
Ianders, it is sa^'d, predict the changes of the weather with 



OF THE NATCHAL LAWS. 279 

extraordinary skill. M One evening, when Captain Cruise and 
some of his friends were returning from a long excursion up 
one of the rivers, although the sky was at the time without a 
cloud, a native who sat in the boat with them, remarked that 
there would oe heavy rain the next day; a prediction w.iici 
they were the more inclined to believe, by finding, when U ey 
returned on board the ship, that the barometer had fallen very 
much, and which the deluge of the following morning com- 
pletely confirmed.''* 

The utility of the marine barometer, or the sympie-someter 
in indicating approaching storms, is strikingly shown by the 
following extract from the Edinburgh Philosoi. hicai Journal, 

"The correspondent (Mr. Stevenson, civil engineer) to 
whom we are indebted for the notice regarding the Scotch 
fisheries, inserted in this number (p. 129), informs us, tha» 
having occasion, towards the conclusion of his voyage, in the 
beginning of September last, to visit the Isle of Alan, he be- 
held the interesting spectacle of about three hundred large 
fishing boats, each from fifteen to twenty tons' burden, leaving 
their various harbors at that island in an apparently fine after. 
noon, and standing directly out to sea, with the intention of 
prosecuting the fishery under night He at the same timt> 
remarked that both the common marine barometer, and 
Adie's sympie-someter, which were in the cabin of his ves- 
sel, indicated an approaching change of weather, the mer- 
cury falling to 29.5 inches. It becomes painful, therefore, to 
witness the scene ; more than a thousand industrious fisher- 
men, lulled to security by the fineness of the day, scattering 
their little barks over the face of the ocean, and thus rushing 
forward to imminent danger, or probable destruction. At sun- 
set, accordingly, the sky became cloudy and threatening, and in 
the course of the night it blew a very hard gale, which after- 
wards continued for three days successively. This gale com- 
pletely dispersed the fleet of boats, and it was not without the 
utmost difficulty that many of them reached the various 
creeks of the island. It is believed no lives were lost on this 
occasion ; but the boats were damaged, much tackle was de- 
stroyed, and the men were unnecessarily exposed to danger 
and fatigue. During the same storm, it may be remarked, 
thirteen vessels were either totally lost or stranded between 
the Isle of Anglesey and St. Bee's Head in Lancashire. Mr. 

• li'orarj of Entertaining Knowledge ; Th< New Zcdandcrn* p. Sol. 



880 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

Stevenson remarks how much it is to be regretted that the 
barometer is so little in use in the mercantile marine of Great 
Britain, compared with the trading vessels of Holland ; and 
observes that though the common marine barometer is per- 
haps too cumbersome for the ordinary run of fishing and 
coasting vessels, yet Adie's sympie-someter is so extremely 
portable, that it may be carried even in a Manx boat. Each 
lot of such vessels has a commodore, under whose orders the 
fleet sails : it would therefore be a most desirable thing that 
a sympie-someter should be attached to each commodore's 
boat, from which a preconcerted signal of an expected gale 
or change of weather, as indicated by a sympie-someter, could 
easily be given."- — Edin. Phil. Journ. ii. 196. 

Dr. Neil Arnot, in mentioning the great utility of the ma- 
rine barometer, states that he himself was " one of a nume- 
rous crew who probably owed their preservation to its almost 
miraculous warning. It was in a southern latitude. The 
sun had just set with placid appearance, closing a beautiful 
afternoon, and the usual mirth of the evening watch was 
proceeding, when the captain's order came to prepare with all 
haste for a storm. The barometer had begun to fall with 
appalling rapidity. As yet, the oldest sailors had not per 
ceived even a threatening in the sky, and were surprised at 
the extent and hurry of the preparations; but the required 
measures were not completed, when a more awful hurricane 
burst upon them than the most experienced had ever braved." 
"In that awful night, but for the little tube of mercury which 
had given the warning, neither the strength of the noble ship, 
nor the skill and energies of the commander, could have 
saved one man to tell the tale."* 

One of the most instructive illustrations of the connexion 
between the different natural laws is presented in Captain 
Lyon's Brief Narrative of an unsuccessful attempt to reach 
Repulse Bay, in his Majesty's ship Griper, in the year 1824. 

Captain Lyon mentions, that he sailed in the Griper on the 
13th June 1824, in company with his Majesty's surveying 
vessel Snap, as a store-tender. The Griper was 180 tons 
burden, and "drew 16 feet 1 inch abaft, and 15 feet 10 inches 
forward." On the 26th, he "was sorry to observe that the 
Griper from her great depth and sharpness forward, pitched 
very deeply." She sailed so ill, that, " in a stiff breeze, ar.d 



* Arnot's Elements of PI ;sics, i. 350. 



OF THE NATURAL LAWS. 281 

with studding-sails set, he was unable to get above four knots 
an hour out of her, and she was twice whirled round in an 
eddy in the Pentland Firth, from which she could not escape." 
On the 3d of July, he says, " being now fairly at sea, I caused 
the Snap to take us in tow, which I had declined doing as we 
passed up the east coast of England, although our little com 
panion had much difficulty in keeping under sufficiently low 
sail for us, and by noon we had passed ihe Stack Back." 

The Snap was of the greatest assistance, the Griper fre- 
quently towing at the rate of five knots, in cases where she 
would not have gone three." " On the forenoon of the I6th> 
the Snap came and took us in tow ; but, at noon on the 17th, 
strong breezes and a heavy swell obliged us again to cast off. 
We scudded while able, but our depth in the water caused us 
to ship so many heavy seas, that I most reluctantly brought-to 
under storm stay-sails. This was rendered exceedingly morti- 
fying, by observing that our companion was perfectly dry, and 
not affected by the sea." " When our stores were all on 
board, we found our narrow decks completely crowded by 
the in. The gangways, forecastle, and abaft the mizen-mast, 
were filled with casks, hawsers, whale-lines, and stream-cables, 
while on our straitened lower decks we were obliged to place 
casks and other stores, in every part but that allotted to the 
ship's company's mess-tables ; and even my cabin had a 
quantity of things stowed away in it." "It may be proper 
to mention, that the Fury and Hecla, which were enabled to 
stow three years' provisions, were each exactly double the 
size of the Griper, and the Griper carried two years' and a 
half's provisions." 

Having arrived in the Polar Seas, they were visited by a 
storm, of which Captain Lyon gives the following descrip- 
tion : — We soon, however, came to fifteen fathoms, and I 
kept right away, but had then only ten ; when, being unable 
to see far around us, and observing, from the whiteness of the 
water, that we were on a bank, I rounded to at 7 a. m., and 
tried to bring up with the starboard-anchor and seventy fa- 
thoms chain, but the stiff breeze and heavy sea caused this to 
part in half an hour, and we again made sail to the north- 
eastward; but finding we'eame suddenly to seven fathoms, 
and that the ship could not possibly work out again, as she 
would not face the sea, or keep steerage-way on her, I most 
reluctantly brought her up with three bowers and a stream in 
succession, yet not before we had shoaled to five and a hutt* 
24* 



282 ON THE COMBINED OPERATION 

This was between 8 and 9 a. m., the ship pitching bows 
flnder, and a tremendous sea running. At noon, the star- 
ooard-bower anchor parted, but the others held. 

" As there was every reason to fear the falling of the tide, 
which we knew to be from twelve to fifteen feet on this coast, 
and in that case the total destruction of the ship, I caused the 
long boat to be hoisted out, and with the four smaller ones, to 
be stored to a certain extent with arms and provisions. The 
officers drew lots for their respective boats, and the ship's 
company were stationed to them. The long boat having been 
filled full of stores which could not be put below, it became 
requisite to throw them "overboard, as there was no room for 
them on our very small and crowded decks, over which heavy 
seas were constantly sweeping. In making these prepara- 
tions for taking to the boats, it was evident to all, that the 
long boat was the only one that had the slightest chance of 
living under the lee of the ship, should she be wrecked ; but 
every man and officer drew his lot with the greatest com- 
posure, though two of our boats would have swamped tbe 
instant they were lowered. Yet, such was the noble feeling 
of those around me, that it was evident, that, had I ordered 
the boats in question to be manned, their crews would have 
entered them without a murmur. In the afternoon, on the 
weather clearing a little, we discovered a low beach all 
around astern of us, on which the surf was running to an 
awful height, and it appeared evident that no human power 
could save us. At 3 p. m., the tide had fallen to twenty feet 
(only six more than we drew), and the ship, having been 
raised by a tremendous sea, struck with great violence the 
length of her keel. This we naturally conceived was the 
forerunner of her total wreck, and we stood in readiness to 
take to the boats, and endeavor to hang under her lee. She 
continued to strike with sufficient force to have burst any less 
fortified vessel, at intervals of a few minutes whenever an un- 
usual heavy sea passed us. And, as the water was so shallow, 
these might be called breakers rather than waves, for each in 
passing burst with great force over our gangways, and, as every 
sea ' topped,' our decks were continually, and frequently deep- 
/y, flooded. All hands took a little refreshment, for some had 
scarely been below for twenty-four hours, and I had not been 
in bed for three nights. Although few or none of us had any 
idea that we should survive the gale, we did not think that 
*ur comforts should be entirely neglected, and an order was 



OF THE NATURAL LAW*. 283 

therefore given to the men to put on their hest and warmest 
clothing, to enahle them to support life as long as possible. 
Every man, therefore, hrought his bag on deck, and dressed 
himself; and in the fine athletic forms which stood before me, 
I did not see one muscle quiver, nor the slightest sign of 
alann. The officers each secured some useful instrument 
about them, for the purpose of observation, although it was 
acknowledged by all that not the slightest hope remained* 
And now that every thing in our power had been done, 
called all hands aft, and to a merciful God offered prayers for 
our preservation. I thanked every one for his excellent con- 
duct, and cautioned them, as we should in all probability soon 
appear before our Maker, to enter his presence as men re- 
signed to their fate. We then all sat down in groups, and, 
sheltered from the wash of the sea by whatever we could find, 
many of us endeavored to obtain a little sleep. Never, per- 
haps, was witnessed a finer scene than on the deck of my 
little ship, when all the hope of life had left us. Noble as 
the character of the British sailor is always allowed to be in 
cases of danger, yet I did not believe it to be possible, that, 
amongst forty-one persons, not one repining word should have 
been uttered. The officers sat about, wherever they could 
find a shelter from the sea, and the men lay down conversing 
with each other with the most perfect calmness. Each was 
at peace with his neighbor and all the world, and I am firmly 
persuaded that the resignation which was then shown to the 
will of the Almighty, was the means of obtaining his mercy. 
At about 6 p. m., the rudder, which had already received some 
very heavy blows, rose, and broke up the after-lockers, and 
this was the last severe shock that the ship received. We 
found by the well that she made no water, and by dark she 
struck no more. God was merciful to us, and the tide, almost 
miraculously, fell no lower. A dark heavy rain fell, but was 
borne in patience, for it beat down the gale, and brought with it 
a light air from the northward. At 9 p. m. the water had deep- 
ened to five fathoms. The ship kept off the ground all night, 
and our exhausted crew obtained some broken rest." — P. 76. 

In humble gratitude for his deliverance, he called the place 
" The Bay of God's Mercy," and " offered up thanks and 
praise to God, for the mercy he had shown to us." 

On the 12th September, they had another gale of wind, 
with cutting showers of sleet, and a heavy sea. " At such a 
moment as this," says Captain Lyon, " we had fresh cause 



•284 OX THE COMBINED OPERATION 

to deplore the extreme dulness of the Griper* s sailing ; for 
though almost any other vessel would have worked off this 
lee-shore, we made little or no progress on a wind, hut re- 
mained actually pitching, forecastle under, with scarcely 
bteerage-vjay, to preserve which, I was ultimately obliged to 
keep her nearly two points off the wind." — P. 98. 

Another storm overtook them, which is described as fol- 
lows : — " Never shall I forget the dreariness of this most 
anxious night. Our ship pitched at such rate, that it was not 
possible to stand, even below ; while on deck we were unable 
to move, without holding by ropes, which were stretched from 
side to side. The drift snow flew in such sharp heavy flakes, 
that we could not look to windward, and it froze on deck to 
above a foot in depth. The sea made incessant breaches 
quite fore and aft the ship, and the temporary warmth it gave, 
while it washed over us, was most painfully checked, by its 
almost immediately freezing on our clothes. To these dis- 
comforts were added the horrible uncertainty as to whether 
the cables would hold until daylight, and the conviction also, 
that if they failed us, we should instantly be dashed to pieces, 
the wind blowing directly to the quarter in which we knew 
the shore must lie. Again, should they continue to hold us, 
we feared, by the ship's complaining so much forward, that 
the bits would be torn up, or that she would settle down at 
her anchors, overpowered by some of the tremendous seas 
which burst over her. At dawn on the 13th, thirty minutes 
after four a. m., we found that the best bower cable had 
parted ; and as the gale now blew with terrific violence; from 
the north, there was little reason to expect that the other 
anchors would hold long ; or, if they did, we pitched so deeply , 
and lifted so great a body of water each time, titat it was 
feared the windlass and forecastle would he torn up, or she 
must go down at her anchors : although the ports were 
knocked out, and a considerable portion of the bulwark cut 
away, she could scarcely discharge one sea before shipping 
another, and the decks were frequently flooded to an alarming 
depth. 

" At 6 a. m. all further doubts on this particular account 
were at an end : for, having received two overwhelming seas, 
both the other cables went at the same moment, and we were 
left helpless, without anchors, or any means of saving our- 
selves, should the shore, as we had every reason to expect, be 
close astern. And here, again, I had the happiness of wit- 



O? THE NATURAL LAWS. 285 

nessing the same general tranquillity as was shown on the 
1st of September. There was no outcry that the cables were 
gone ; but my friend Mr. Manico, with Mr. Carr the gunner, 
came aft as soon as they recovered their legs, and in the low- 
est whisper informed me that the cables had all parted. The 
ship, in trending to the wind, lay quite down on her broad- 
side, and as it then became evident that nothing held her, and 
that she wns quite helpless, each man instinctively took his 
station ; while the seamen at the leads, having secured them 
selves as well as was in their power, repeated their soundings, 
on which our preservation depended, with as much composure 
as if we had been entering a friendly port. Here, again, that 
Almighty power, which had before so mercifully preserved us, 
granted us his protection." — P. 100. 

Nothing can be more interesting and moving than this 
narrative ; it displays a great predominance of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect, but sadly unenlightened as to the natu 
ral laws. I have quoted in Captain Lyon's own words, his 
description of the Griper, loaded to such excess that she drew 
sixteen feet water — that she was incapable of sailing — that 
she was whirled round in an eddy in the Pentland Firth — 
and that seas broke over her which did not wet the deck of 
the little Snap, not half her size. Captain Lyon knew all 
this, and also the roughness of the climate to which he was 
steering ; and with these outrages of the physical law staring 
him in the face, he proceeded on his voyage, without ad- 
dressing, so far as appears from his narrative, one remoiw 
strance to the Lords of the Admiralty on the subject of this 
infringement of the principles of common prudence. My opi- 
nion is, that Captain Lyon was not blind to the errors com- 
mitted in his equipment, or to their probable consequences* 
but that his powerful sentiment of Veneration, combined with 
Cautiousness and Love of Approbation (misdirected in this 
instance), deprived him of courage to complain to the Admi- 
ralty, through fear of giving offence ; or that, if he did com 
plain, they prevented him from stating the fact in his narra 
tive. To the tempestuous north he sailed ; and his greatest 
dangers were clearly referable to the very infringements of 
the physical laws which he describes. When the tide ebbed, 
his ship reached to within six feet of the bottom, and, in the 
hollow of every wave, struck with great violence : but sue 
was loaded at least four feet too deeply, by his own account 
so that if he hid done his duty, she would have had four feet 



?8C OX THE COMBINED OPERATION 

ot additional water, or ten feet in all, between her and the 
bottom, even in the hollow of the wave — a matter of the ver\ 
last importance in such a critical situation. Indeed, with foui 
feet more water, she would not have struck ; besides, if less 
loaded, she would have struck less violently. Again, when 
pressed upon a lee-shore, her incapability of sailing was a 
most obvious cause of danger. In short, if Providence is to 
be regarded as the cause of these calamities, there is no im- 
propriety which it is possible for man to commit, that may 
not, on the same principles, be charged against the Creator. 
But the moral law again shines forth in delightful splendor 
in the conduct of Captain Lyon and his crew, when in the 
most forlorn condition. Piety, resignation, and manly reso- 
lution, then animated them to the noblest efforts. On the 
principle, that the power of accommodating our conduct to 
the natural laws depends on the activity of the moral senti- 
ments and intellect, and that the more numerous the faculties 
that are excited the greater is the energy communicated to 
the whole system, I would say, that while Captain Lyon's 
sufferings were, in a great degree, brought on by his infringe- 
ments of the physical laws, his escape was greatly promoted 
by his obedience to the moral law. I do not mean to say 
that, in consequence of their prayers, Providence suspended 
any natural law, to favor their escape ; but that the admirable 
moral and intellectual condition of their minds, induced partly 
by their religious exercises, enabled them to accommodate 
their conduct to the operation of the physical laws, or skil- 
fully to manage their vessel, by doing which they survived 
the storm ; and that Providence, in the whole occurrences, 
proceeded on the broad and general principle, which sends 
advantage uniformly as the reward of obedience, and evil as 
the punishment of infringement, of every particular law of 
creation. 

That storms and tempests have been instituted for some 
benevolent end, may perhaps be acknowledged when theii 
pauses and effects are fully known, which at present is not 
the case. But even amidst all our ignorance of these, it is 
surprising how small a portion of evil they would occasion if 
men obeyed the laws which are actually ascertained. How 
many ships perish from being ill-constructed, or sent to sea in 
an old worn-out condition, and ill-equipped, through mere 
Acquisitiveness; and how many more, from captains and 
crews being chosen, who are greatly deficient in knowledge. 



OF IHK \1TUR1L LAWS. 28? 

Intelligence, and morality, in consequence of which they 
infringe the physical laws ! The London Courier, of 29th 
April 1834, contains a list of ten British biigs of war, mostly 
employed as packet-ships, which hai foundered at sea within 
the preceding twelve years, owing to bad construction and 
bad condition ; while, it is remarked, not one American private 
paeket-skip, out of the vast number constantly sailing netween 
Liverpool and New York, is recollected to have perished in 
that manner. Such facts show how little nature is to blam 
for the calamities of shipwreck, and to how great an ex ten 
they arise from human negligence and folly. We ought to 
look to all these matters, before we complain of storms as 
natural institutions. 

The last example of the mixed operation of the natural 
laws which I shall notice, is the result of the mercantile dis- 
tress in 1825-6. I have traced the origin of that visitation 
to excessive activity of Acquisitiveness, and a general ascen- 
dency of the animal and selfish faculties over the moral and 
intellectual powers. The punishments of these offences wers 
manifold. The excesses infringed the moral law, and the 
chastisement of this, was deprivation of the tranquil steady 
enjoyment that flow T s only from the moral sentiments, with 
severe suffering in the ruin of fortune and blasting of hope. 
These disappointments produced mental anguish and de- 
pression, which occasioned an unhealthy state of the brain. 
The action of the brain being disturbed, a morbid nervous 
influence was transmitted to the whole corporeal system ; 
bodily disease was superadded to mental sorrow; and, in 
some instances, the unhappy sufferers committed suicide to 
escape from these aggravated evils. Under the organic law, 
the children produced in this period of mental depression, 
bodily distress, and organic derangement, would inherit weak 
bodies, with feeble and irritable minds — a hereditary chastise- 
ment for their fathers' transgressions. 

In the instances now given, we discover the various laws 
acting in perfect harmony, and in subordination to the moral 
and intellectual laws. If our ancestors had not forsaken the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments, such fabrics as the houses 
in the Old Town of Edinburgh never would have been built; 
and if the modern proprietors had returned to that law, and 
kept profligate and drunken inhabitants out of them, the con- 
flagration migh: still have been avoided. In the case of the 
ships, we see that wherever intellect and morality had b*en 



t88 INFLUENCE JF THE NATURAL LAWS 

relaxed, and animal motives permitted to assume the supre- 
macy, evil had speedily followed ; and that where the higher 
powers were called forth, safety had been obtained. And, 
finally, in the case of the merchants and manufacturers, we 
irace their calamities directly to placing Acquisitiveness and 
Self-Esteem above intellect and moral sentiment. 

Formidable and appalling, then, as these punishments are 
— yet, when we attend to the laws under which they occur, 
and perceive that the object and legitimate operation of every 
one of those laws, when observed, is to produce happiness to 
man, and that the punishments have in view the sole object 
of forcing him back to this happiness — we cannot, under the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, fail to bow 
in humility before them, as at once wise, benevolent, and just. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS ON THE HAPPINESS 01 
INDIVIDUALS. 

A formidable objection has often been stated against my 
views of the Natural Laws — namely, that although, when 
considered abstractly, they appear beneficent and just, yet, 
when applied to individuals, they are undeniably the causes 
of extensive, severe, and unavoidable suffering ; so that while, 
theoretically, the moral horizon appears to be cleared up. 
nevertheless, practically and substantially, the obscurity and 
intricacy remain undiminished. In answer, I have to observe, 
that, as the whole is but an aggregate of all the parts — if any 
natural institution, when viewed in its operation in regard to 
the race, is found to be just and beneficent, it cannot well be 
cruel and unjust to individuals, who are the component parts 
of that whole ; and this, accordingly, I humbly conceive to 
admit of something approaching to demonstration. The form 
of a dialogue is perhaps the best adapted for illustrating the 
6ubject ; and if, in imitation of some of the classic fabulists, 
we suppose the suffering individuals to make an appeal to 
Jupiter, the law of gravitation may be exemplified as follows. 

It happened in a remote period, that a slater slipped from 
the roof of a high building, in consequence of a stone of the 
ridge having given way as he walked upright along it ; he 
fell to the ground, had a leg broken, and was otherwise se- 
verely bruised. As he lay in bed suffering severe pain from 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 28$ 

his misfortune, he addressed Jupiter in these words* "O Ju- 
piter, thou art a cruel god ; for thou hast made me so frail ana 
imperfect a being, that I had no faculties to perceive my 
danger, nor power to arrest my fall when its occurrence 
snowed how horrible an evil awaited me. It were better f(*r 
me that I had never been." Jupiter, graciously bending his 
ear, heard the address, and answered : " Of what law of mine 
dost thou complain ?" " Of the law of gravitation," replied 
the slater ; " by its operation, the slip which my foot made 
upon the stone, which, unknown to me, was loose, precipitated 
me to the earth, and crushed my body, never calculated to 
resist such violence." " I restore thee to thy station on the 
roof," said Jupiter ; " I heal all thy bruises ; and to convince 
thee of my benevolence, I suspend the law of gravitation as to 
thy body and all that is related to it : art thou now content?" 

The slater, in deep emotion, offered up gratitude and 
thanks, and expressed the profoundest reverence for so just 
and beneficent a deity. In the very act of doing so, he found 
himself in perfect health, erect upon the ridge of the roof; 
and, rejoicing, gazed around. His wonder at so strange an 
event having at last abated, he endeavored to walk along the 
ridge to arrive at the spot which he intended to repair. But 
the law of gravitation was suspended, and his body did not 
press upon the roof. There being no pressure, there was no 
resistance, and his legs moved backwards and forwards in the 
air without any progress being made by his body. Alarmed 
at this occurrence, he stooped, seized his trowel, lifted it full 
of mortar, and made the motion of throwing it on the slates ; 
but the mortar, freed from the trowel, hung in mid-air — the 
law of gravitation was suspended as to it also. Nearly frantic 
with terror at such unexpected novelties, he endeavored to 
descend in order to seek relief; but the law of gravitation 
was suspended as to his body, and it hung poised at the level 
of the ridge, like a balloon in the air. He tried to fling him- 
self down, to get rid of the uneasy' sensation, but his body 
floated erect, and would not move downwards. 

In an agony of consternation, he called once more upon 
Jupiter. The god, ever kind and compassionate, hep^d his 
cry and pitied his distress ; and asked, " What evil hath be- 
fallen thee now, that thou art not yet content 1 Have 1 not 
suspended, at thy request, the law which made thee *all 1 
Now thou art safe from bruises and from broken limbs , why 
then, dost thou still complain'?" 
19 25 



290 iATLUENCE OF THE MORAL LAWS 

The slater answered : " In deep humiliation, I acknowledge 
my ignorance and presumption ; restore me to my couch of 
pain, but give me back the benefits of thy law of gravitation." 

" Thy wish is granted," said Jupiter in reply. The skater 
in a moment lay on his bed of sickness, endured the castiga- 
tion of the organic law, was restored to health, and again 
mounted to the roof that caused his recent pain. He thanked 
Jupiter anew, from the depths of his soul, for the law of gravi- 
tation with its numberless benefits ; and applied his faculties 
to study and obey it during the remainder of his life. This 
study opened up to him new and delightful perceptions of the 
Creator's beneficence and wisdom, of which he had never 
even dreamed before ; and these views so excited and grati- 
fied his moral and intellectual powers that he seemed to him- 
self to have entered on a new existence. Ever afterwards he 
observed the law of gravitation ; and, in a good old age, when 
his organic frame was fairly worn out by natural decay, he 
transmitted his trade, his house, and much experience and 
wisdom, to his son, and died thanking and blessing Jupiter 
for having opened his eyes to the true theory of his scheme 
of creation. 

The attention of Jupiter was next attracted by the loud 
groans and severe complaints of a husbandman, who ad- 
dressed him thus : " O Jupiter, I lie here racked with pain, 
and pass the hours in agony without relief. Why hast thou 
created me so miserable a being ?" Jupiter answered : " What 
aileth thee, and of whac institution of mine dost thou com- 
plain V f "The earth which thou hast made," replied the 
husbandman, " will yield me no food, unless I till and sow it, 
and no increase, except it be watered by thy rain. While I 
guided my plough in obedience to thy law, thy rain came, 
and it fell not only on the earth, but also on me ; it pene- 
trated through the clothes which I had been obliged to make 
f )r myself, because thou hadst left me naked ; it cooled my 
skin, which thou hadst rendered delicate and sensible ; it dis- 
ordered all the functions of my body; and now rheumatic 
fever parches my blood, and agonizes every muscle. O Ju- 
piter, thou art not a kind father to thy children." 

Jupiter heard the complaint, and graciously replied: "My 
physical and organic laws were established for thy advantage 
and enjoyment, and thou hast grievously infringed them ; the 
pain thou sufTerest is intended to reclaim thee io thy duty. 



ON THE HAPPINESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 291 

and I have constituted thy duty the highest joy for thy exist- 
ence ; but say, what dost thou desire !" 

The husbandman answered : " What, O Jupiter, signify 
the purposes of thy laws to me, when thou hast denied me 
faculties competent to discover and obey them ] Frail and 
fallible as I am, they cause me only pain ; deliver me from 
their effects, and I ask no other boon." 

" Thy prayer is granted," said Jupiter : " I restore thee to 
perfect health ; and for thy gratification, I suspend the laws 
that have offended thee. Henceforth water shall not wet thee 
or thine, thy skin shall feel cold no more, and thy muscles 
shall never ache. Art thou now content!" 

u Most gracious Jupiter," said the husbandman, " my soul 
is melted with deepest gratitude, and I now adore thee as 
supremely good." 

While he spoke, he found himself afield behind his team, 
healthful and vigorous, jocund and gay, and again blessed 
Jupiter for his merciful dispensation. The season was spring, 
when yet the chill blast of the north, the bright blaze of a 
powerful sun, and passing showers of rain, interchanged in 
quick and varying succession. As he drove his plough along, 
the rain descended, but it wet not him ; the sharp winds blew, 
but they chilled no fibre of his frame ; the flood of heat next 
poured upon his brow, but no sweat started from its pores t 
the physical and organic laws were suspended as to him. 

Rejoicing in his freedom from annoyance and pain, he 
returned gladly home to meet his smiling family, after the 
labors of the day. It had been his custom in the evening to 
put off the garments in which he had toiled, to clothe himself 
in fresh linen, to sup on milk prepared by his wife with sa- 
voury fruits and spices, and to press his children to his bosom 
with all the fervour of a parent's love ; and he used to feel a 
thrill of pleasure pervading every nerve, as they acknowledged 
and returned the affectionate embrace. 

He looked to find the linen clean, cool, delicately dressed 
and lying in its accustomed place ; but it was not there. H 
called to his wife to fetch it, half chiding her for neglect. 
With wonder and dismay depicted in every feature, she nar- 
rated a strange adventure. With the morning sun she had 
risen to accomplish her wonted duty, but although the water 
wetted every thread that clothed other individuals, it moist- 
ened not a fibre of his. She boiled it over a powerful tire, 
and applied e^ery means that intellect, stimulated by affection, 



292 INFLUENCE OF THE JIORAL LAWS 

could devise ; but the result was still the same r the watei 
glided over his clothes and would not wet them. " The phy- 
sical law," said the husband within himself, " is suspended as 
to me ; henceforth water wetteth not me or mine." He said 
no more, but placed himself at table, smiling over his lovely 
family. He lifted the youngest child upon his knee, a girl 
just opening in her bloom — pressed her to his bosom, and 
kissed her ruddy cheek. But he started when he experienced 
no sensation. He saw her with his eyes, and heard her 
speak, but had no feeling of her presence. His knee was as 
stone, his bosom as marble, and his lips as steel ; no sensa- 
Hon penetrated through his skin. He placed her on the floor, 
looked wistfully on her form, graceful, vivacious, and instinct 
with love ; and, as if determined to enjoy the well-remem- 
bered pleasure now withheld, he clasped her to his bosom 
with an embrace so ardent that she screamed with pain. 
Still he was all adamant: no sensation reached his mind. 
Heaving a deep sigh, he sent her away, and again the thought 
entered the very depths of his soul — " The organic law is 
suspended as to me !" Recollecting well the sweet grati- 
fications of his evening meal, he seized a bowl, and delicately 
began to sip, exciting every papilla of the tongue to catch 
the grateful savor. But no savor was perceptible ; the 
liquid glided over his gustatory organs like quicksilver over 
the smooth surface of a mirror, without impression, and with- 
out leaving a trace behind. He now started in horror, and 
his spirit sank within him when he thought that thence- 
forth he should live without sensation. He rushed into the 
fields, and called aloud on Jupiter, " O Jupiter, I am the most 
miserable of men ; I am a being without sensation. Why 
hast thou made me thus]" 

Jupiter heard his cry, and answered : " I have suspended 
the physical and organic laws, to which thou ascribest thy 
fever and thy pain ; henceforth no pang shall cause thy nerve* 
to shrink, or thy muscles to quiver : why, then, art thou thus 
Unhappy, and why discontented with thy new condition '?" 

" True, O Jupiter," replied the husbandman ; " but thou 
hast taken away from me sensation : I no longer feel the 
grateful breath of morn fanning my cheek as I drive my. team 
afield; the rose diffuses its fragrance for me in vain; the 
ruddy grape, the luscious fig, and the cooling orange, to me 
are now savorless as adamant or air ; my children ure at 



ON THE HAPPIXESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 203 

stones : O Jupiter, I am utterly wretched ; I am a man with- 
out sensation !" 

*' Unhappy mortal," replied the god, "how can I afford 
thee satisfaction 1 When I gave thee nerves to feel, and 
muscles to execute the purposes of thy mind — when I be- 
stowed on thee water to refresh thy palate, and made thy 
whole frame one great inlet of enjoyment — thou wert not 
content I made thy nerves liable to pain, to warn thee of 
thy departures from my laws. The rain that was sent fell to 
fructify and refresh the earth, and not to injure thee. I saw 
thee, while the showers descended, stay abroad, regardless of 
its influence on thy frame. The northern blast received from 
me its piercing cold, to warn thee of its effects; and yet I saw 
thee, wet and shivering, stand in its course, regardless of its 
power. In the voice of the storm I spake to thy under- 
standing, but thou didst not comprehend. The fever that 
parched thy blood was sent to arrest thee in thy departures 
from my organic laws. If I restore to thee my institutions, 
thou mayest again forget my ways, and in misery impeach 
my justice." 

" O most gracious Jupiter," cried the husbandman, " now I 
see thy power and wisdom, and my own folly and presump- 
tion. I accept thy laws, and gratefully acknowledge that, 
even in the chastisements they inflict, they are beneficent. 
Restore to me the enjoyments of sensation ; permit me once 
more to reap the advantages that flow from the just uses of 
my nerves and muscles, and I bow with resignation to the 
punishment of misapplying them." Jupiter granted his re- 
quest. His fever and pains returned, but by medicine were 
relieved. He slowly recovered health and strength, and never 
afterwards embraced his children, or enjoyed a meal, without 
pouring forth a deeper offering of gratitude than he had done 
before. He was now instructed concerning the source of his 
enjoyments ; he studied the laws of his nature and obeyed 
them ; and when he suffered for occasional deviations, he 
hastened back to the right path, and never again underwent 
so severe a punishment 

Just as the husbandman resumed his wonted labors, a new 
voice was heard calling loudly to Jupiter for relief. It pro- 
ceeded from a young heir writhing in agony, who cried, " O 
Jupiter, my father committed debaucheries, for which- my 
bones are pierced with suffering; gout teareth my flesh 
asunder; thou actest not justly in punishing me for his trans- 
25* 



294 INTLUESCS OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

gressions : deliver me, Jupiter, or renounce thy character foi 
benevolence and justice." " Thou complainest of my law of 
hereditary descent!" said Jupiter; "hast thou derived from 
thy father any other quality besides liability to gout?" "O 
Jupiter," replied the sufferer, " I have derived nerves that feel 
sweet pleasure when the gout ceaseth its gnawing, muscles 
that execute the purposes of my will, senses that are inlets of 
joy, and faculties that survey and rejoice in thy fair creation : 
But why didst thou permit gout to descend from him who 
sinned, to me 1 

"Short-sighted mortal," said Jupiter, "thy father was af- 
flicted because he infringed my institutions ; by my organic 
law thou hast received a frame constituted as was that of thy 
father when thy life commenced ; the delicate sensibility of 
his nerves transmitted the same susceptibility to thine ; the 
vigor of his muscles has been transferred into thine ; and by 
the same law, the liability to pain that existed in his bones 
from debauchery, constitutes an inseparable element of thine : 
If this law afflict thee, speak the word, and I shall suspend it 
as to thee." 

" Bountiful Jupiter !" exclaimed the sufferer ; " but tell me 
first — if thou suspendest thy law, shall I lose all that I in- 
herited by it from my father ; vigor of nerves, muscles, senses, 
and faculties, and all that constitutes my delight when the 
gout afflicteth me not!" "Assuredly thou shalt," said Ju- 
piter : " but thy body shall be free from pain." 

" Forbear, most bounteous deity," replied the sufferer ; " I 
gratefully accept the gift of thy organic laws, with all their 
chastisements annexed : But say, O Jupiter — if this pain was 
inflicted on my father for transgressing thy law, may it not 
be lessened or removed if I obey V 

" The very object of my law," said Jupiter, " is that it 
should. Hadst thou proceeded as thy father did, thy whole 
frame would have become one great centre of disease. The 
pain was transmitted to thee to guard thee by a powerful 
monitor from pursuing his sinful ways, that thou mightest 
escape this greater misery. Adopt a course in accordance 
with my institutions, and then thy pain shall abate, and thy 
children shall be free from its effects." 

The heir expressed profound resignation to the will of Ju- 
piter, blessed him for his organic law, and entered upon a life 
of new and strict obedience. His pain in time diminished, 



OX THE HATPIXESS OF INDIVIDUALS. 293 

and his enjoyments increased. Ever after he was grateful 
for the law. 

A feeble voice next reached the vault of heaven : it was 
that of a child, sick and in pain. "What is thy distress, 
poor boy." said Jupiter, "and of what dost thou complain?" 
Half drowned in sobs, the feeble voice replied : u I suffer 
under thy oraanic law. A father's sickness, and the disor- 
ders of a mother's frame, have been transmitted in combined 
intensity to me. I am all over exhaustion and pain." "Hast 
thou received no other gift," inquired Jupiter, "but sickness 
and disease — no pleasure to thy nerves, thy muscles, or thy 
mental powers'?" "All are so feeble," replied the child, 
"that I exist, not to enjoy, but only to suffer." "Poor vic- 
tim," said Jupiter, " my organic law shall soon deliver thee, 
and I will take thee to myself." The organic law instantly 
operated ; the body of the child lay a lifeless mass, and suf- 
fered no more ; its spirit dwelt with Jupiter. 

The next prayer was addressed by a merchant struggling 
on the Mediterranean w r aves, and near sinking in their foam* 
u What evil dost thou charge against me," said Jupiter, " and 
what dost thou require ?" 

" O Jupiter," answered the supplicant, " I sailed from Tyre 
to Kome in a ship, which thou seest on fire, loaded with all 
the merchandize acquired by my previous toils. As I lay here 
at anchor off the port of Syracuse, whither business called 
me, a sailor, made by thee, thirsted after wine, stole it from 
mv store, and in intoxication, set my ship and goods on fire ; 
and I am now plunged in the waves to die by drowning, to 
escape the severer pain of being consumed by fire. Why, if 
thou art just, should the innocent thus suffer for the guilty V 1 
" Thou complainest, then," said Jupiter, " of my social 
law ] Since the law displeaseth thee, I restore thee to thy 
ship, and suspend it as to thee." 

The merchant, in a moment, saw his ship entire ; the 
blazing embers restored to vigorous planks ; himself and all 
his crew sound in limb, and gay in mind, upon her deck. 
Jovous and grateful, he addressed thanksgiving to the god, 
and called to his crew to weigh the anchor, set the sails, and 
turn the helm for Rome. But no sailor heard him speak, and 
no movement followed his words. Astonished at their indo- 
lence and sloth, he cried in a yet louder voice, and inquired 
whv none obeyed his call. But still no answer was given. 
He saw the crew move and speak, act and converse ; but 



296 INFLUENCE OF THE NATURAL LAWS 

thev seeded not to observe Mm. He entreated, remonstrated, 
and upbraided ; but, notwithstanding all his efforts, could ob- 
tain no reply. All seemed unconscious of his presence. Un- 
conscious of his presence! The awful thought rushed into 
his mind, that the social law was suspended as to him. He 
now saw, in all its horror, the import of the words of Jupiter, 
which before he had not fully comprehended. Terrified, he 
seized a rope, and set a sail. Every physical law was in force, 
and obeyed his will. The sail rilled, and strained forward 
from the mast. He ran to the helm — it obeyed his muscles, 
and the ship moved as he directed it. But its course was 
short ; the anchor was down, and stopped its progress in the 
sea. He lowered the sail, seized a handspoke, and attempted 
to weigh; but in vain. The strength of ten men. was re-' 
quired to raise so ponderous an anchor. Again he called to 
his crew ; but again he found that the social law was sus- 
pended as to him: he was absolved thenceforth from all suf- 
fering caused by the misconduct of others, but he was cut off 
from every enjoyment and advantage derivable from their- 
assistance. 

In despair he seized the boat, rowed it into the port of Sy- 
racuse, and proceeded straight to his commercial correspondent 
there, to beg his aid in delivering him from the indolence of 
his crew. He saw his friend, addressed him, and told him 
of his fruitless endeavors to leave the anchorage ; but his 
friend seemed quite unconscious of his presence. He did not 
even look upon him, but proceeded in business of his own, 
with which he seemed entirely occupied. The merchant, 
wearied with fatigue, and almost frantic with alarm, hurried 
to a tavern on the quay, where he used to dine ; and, en- 
tering, called for wine to recruit his exhausted strength. But 
the servants seemed unconscious of his presence ; no move- 
ment was made ; and he remained as if in a vast solitude, 
amidst large companies of merchants, servants, and assistants, 
who all bustled in active gaiety, each fulfilling his duty in his 
own department. The merchant now comprehended all the 
horrors of his situation, and called aloud to Jupiter — " O Ju- 
piter, death in the waves, or by consuming flame, were better 
than the life thou hast assigned to me. Let me die, for my 
cup of misery is full beyond endurance ; or restore me the 
enjoyments of thy social law, and I shall cease to complain 
of the pains which it inflicts." 

"But," said Jupiter, "if I restore to thee my social law, 



ON THE HUTINKSS OF INDIVIDUALS. 29" 

my ship will be consumed, thou and thy crew will escape in 
a boat, but thou shalt be a very beggar ; and, in thy poverty 
thou wilt upbraid me for dealing unjustly by thee." 

" O bountiful Jupiter," replied the merchant, " I never knew 
till now what enjoyments I owed to thy social law ; how rich 
it renders me, even when all else is gone ; and how poor I 
should be, with all the world for a possession, if denied its 
blessings. True, I shall be poor; but my nerves, muscles, 
senses, propensities, sentiments, and intellect, will be left 
me : now I see that employment of these is the only pleasure 
of existence; poverty will not cut me off from exercising 
these powers in obedience to thy laws, but will rather add 
new motives exciting me to do so. Under thy social law, 
will not the sweet voice of friendship cheer me in poverty ; 
will not the aid of kindred and of my fellow men soothe the 
remainder of my days? and, besides, now that I see thy de- 
signs, I shall avoid employing my fellow men in situations un- 
suitable to their talents, and thereby escape the penalties of 
infringing thy social law. Most merciful Jupiter, restore to 
me the benefit of all thy laws, and I accept the penalties 
attached to their infringement." His request was granted; 
afterwards he made Jupiter's laws and the nature of man his 
study ; he obeyed those laws, became moderately rich, and 
found himself happier than he had ever been in his days of 
selfishness and ignorance. 

Jupiter was assailed by many other prayers from unfortu- 
nate sufferers under the effects of infringement of his law ; 
but instead of hearing each in endless succession, he assem- 
bled his petitioners, and introduced to them the slater, the 
husbandman, the young heir, and the merchant, whom he 
requested to narrate their knowledge and experience of the 
natural laws ; and he intimated, that if, after listening to their 
account, any petitioner should still be dissatisfied with his 
condition, he would suspend for him the particular law which 
caused the discontent. But no application followed. Jupiter 
saw his creatures employ themselves with real earnestness in 
studying and conforming to his institutions, and ever after- 
wards they offered up to him only gratitude and adoration for 
nis infinite goodness and wisdom. 



298 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE RELATION BETWEEN SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 

Since tho first edition of this work was published, objection! 
have been stated that the views maintained in it are at vari- 
ance with Revelation, and hostile to the interests of religion* 
[t is gratifying, however, to know, that these objections have 
not been urged by any individual of the least eminence in 
theology, or countenanced by persons of enlarged view sof 
Christian doctrine. On the contrary, many excellent in 
dividuals, of unquestionable piety and benevolence, have 
widely recommended this work as containing the philosophy 
of practical Christianity, and have aided in its distribution. 
It is therefore rather on account of the interest of the inquiry 
itself, than from any feeling of the necessity of a defence, 
that I enter into the following discusssion of the relation be- 
tween Scripture and Science ; and as in a question of this 
nature authorities are entitled to great weight, I shall com- 
mence by citing the opinion of one of the most learned, ta- 
lented, and accomplished divines of the present day, the 
Archbishop of Dublin. 

A few years ago, a Professorship of Political Economy was 
founded in Oxford by Mr. Drummond, with a novel constitu- 
tion. The professor holds his office for only five years, and 
it is a condition that one lecture, at least, shall be published 
every year. , Dr. Whately, now Archbishop of Dublin, was 
the second individual elected to the chair, and, in compliance 
with the statute, he published, in 1831, eight lectures on the 
science. They are introductory in their character, being in- 
tended chiefly to dispel popular prejudices against political 
economy, and to unfold its objects. They contain several 
admirable observations, calculated to remove prejudices against 
new truths, and directly applicable to the subject of the pre- 
sent work. On this account I present them to the reader. 

"It has been my first object," says Dr. Whately, in his 
preface, "to combat the prevailing prejudices against the 
study, and especially those which represent it as unfavorable 
to religion." 

"In proportion." he continues, "as any branch of study 
ieads to important and useful results — in proportion as it 
gains ground in public estimation— in proportion as it tends 
to overthrow prevailing errors — in the same degree it may be 
expected to call forth angry declamation from those who are 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 299 

tryiug to despise what they will not learn, and wedded to 
prejudices which they cannot defend. Galileo probably would 
have escaped persecution, if his discoveries could have been 
disproved, and his reasonings refuted." " That political 
economy should have been complained of as hostile to reli- 
gion, will probably be regarded a century hence (should the 
fact be then on record) with the same wonder, almost ap- 
proaching to incredulity, with which we, of the present day 
hear of men sincerely opposing, on religious grounds, tha 
Copernican system. But till the advocates of Christianity 
shall have become universally much better acquainted with 
the true character of their religion, than, universally, they 
have ever yet been, we must always expect that every branch 
of study, every scientific theory that is brought into notice, 
will be assailed on religious grounds, by those who either 
have not studied the subject, or who are incompetent judges 
of it; or again, who are addressing themselves to such per- 
sons as are so circumstanced, and wish to excite and to take 
advantage of the passions of the ignorant. Flectere si ne- 
queo superos, Acheronta movebo. Some there are who sin- 
cerely believe that the Scriptures contain revelations of truths 
the most distinct from religion. Such persons procured, ac- 
cordingly, a formal condemnation (very lately rescinded) of 
the theory of the earth's motion, as at variance with Scrip- 
ture. In Protestant countries, and now, it seems, even in 
Popish, this point has been conceded ; but that the erroneous 
principle — that of appealing to revelation on questions of 
physical science — -has not yet been entirely cleared away, is 
evident from the objections which most of you probably may- 
have heard to the researches of geology. The objections 
against astronomy have been abandoned, rather, perhaps, 
from its having been made to appear, that the Scripture ac- 
counts of the phenomena of the. heavens may be reconciled 
with the conclusions of science, than from its being under 
stood that Scripture is not the test by which the conclusions 
of science are to be tried." " It is not a sign of faith— on the 
contrary, it indicates rather a want of faith, or else a culpable 
indolence — to decline meeting any theorist on his own ground, 
and to cut short the controversy by an appeal to the authority 
of Scripture. For, if we really are convinced of the truth of 
Scripture, and consequently of the falsity of any theory (of 
the earth, for instance) which is really at variance with it, we 
must needs believe that that theory is also at variance with 



300 OX THE RELATION BETWEEIT 

observable phenomena ; and we ought not therefore to shrink 
from trying the question by an appeal to these." "God ha* 
tiot revealed to us a system of morality, such as would have 
been needed for a being who had no other means of distin- 
guishing right and wrong. On the contrary, the inculcation 
of virtue and reprobation of vice in Scripture, are in such a 
tone as seems to presuppose a natural power, or a capacity 
for acquiring the power, to distinguish them. And if a man, 
denying or renouncing all claims of natural conscience, 
should practise without scruple every thing he did not find 
expressly forbidden in Scripture, and think himself not bound 
to do any thing that is not there expressly enjoined, exclaiming 
at every turn — 

i{ Is it so nominated in the Bond ?"• 

he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian's 
should be. Since, then, we are bound to use our own natural 
faculties in the search after all truth that is within the reach 
of those faculties, most especially ought we to try, by their 
own proper evidence, questions which form no part of revela- 
tion properly so called, but which are incidentally alluded to 
in the Sacred Writings. If we appeal to the Scriptures on 
any such points, it should be merely as to an ancient book, not 
in reference to their sacred character ; in short, not as Scrip- 
ture."— Pp. 29-30. 

These observations are highly philosophical and worthy of 
attention ; the more so that their author is a divine, and now 
a high dignitary in the church of Ireland. 

The science of Geology, also, has been fiercely attacked as 
hostile to religion, and been ably defended by the Rev. Adam 
Sedgwick, one of its most eminent professors. In the Ap- 
pendix to his Discourse on the Studies of the University of 
Cambridge, he has published some valuable and instructive 
notes, in the last of which he reproves, with great eloquence 
and severity, the bigoted and ignorant individuals who "dare 
to affirm that the pursuits of natural science are hostile to reli- 
gion." He also chastises those writers who have endeavored 
to falsify the facts and conclusions of geology, for the purpose 
of flattering the religious prejudices of the public. " There 
is another class of men," says he, " who pursue gpeology by 
nearer road, and are guided by a different light. Well-inten- 
tioned they may be ; but they have betrayed no small selfc 
sufficiency, along with a shameful want of knowledge of th 
fundamental facts they presume to write about : hence the 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 30l 

nave dishonored the literature of this country by Mosaic Geo- 
logy* Scripture Geology, and other works of cosmogony 
with kindred titles, wherein they have overlooked the aim and 
end of revelation, tortured the book of lite out of its proper 
meaning, and wantonly contrived to bring about a collision 
between natural phenomena and the word of God." — P. 15lV 

The following observations of the same author are exceed- 
ingly just: — "A Brahmin crushed with a stone the micro- 
scope that first showed him living things among the vegetables 
of his daily food. The spirit of the Brahmin lives in Chris- 
tendom. The bad principles of our nature are not bounded 
by caste or climate ; and men are still to be found, who, if 
not restrained by the wise and humane laws of their country, 
would try to stifle by personal violence, and crush by brute 
force, every truth not hatched among their own conceits, and 
confined within the narrow fences of their own ignorance. 

" We are told by the wise man not to answer a fool ac- 
cording to his folly ; and it would indeed be a vain and idle 
task to engage in controversy with this school of false philo- 
sophy — to waste our breath in the forms of exact reasoning 
unfitted to the comprehension of our antagonists — to draw 
our weapons in a combat where victory could give no honor. 
Before a geologist can condescend to reason with such men, 
they must first learn geology.* It is too much to call upon 
us to scatter our seed on a soil at once both barren and un- 
reclaimed — it is folly to think that we can in the same hour 
be stubbing up the thorns and reaping the harvest. All the 
writers of this school have not indeed sinned against plain 
sense to the same degree. With some of them, there is per- 
haps a perception of the light of natural truth, which may 
lead them after a time to follow it in the right road : but the 
case of others is beyond all hope from the powers of rational 
argument. Their position is impregnable while they remain 
within the fences of their ignorance, which is to them as 
a wall of brass: for (as was well said, if I remember right, 
by Bishop Warburton, of some bustling fanatics of his own 
day) there is no weak side of common sense whereat we 
may attack them. If cases like these yield at all, it must be 
to some treatment which suits the inveteracy of their nature, 
and not to the weapons of reason. As psychological pheno- 



* This remark is peculiarly applicable to those who oppose Pure* 
oology and the doctrine of the Natural Laws. Such of them a* are 
■erious, do so in profound ignorance of tho whole subject. 
26 



302 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

mena, they are, however, well deserving of our study ; teaching 
us, among other things, how prone man is to turn his best 
faculties to evil purposes — and how, at the suggestions of 
vanity and other bad principles of his heart, he can become 
so far deluded, as to fancy that he is doing honor to religion 
while he is sacrificing the common charities of life, and ar- 
raigning the very workmanship of God." — Pp. 151, 152. 

After the examples which these passages afford, of misdi- 
rected zeal for religion leadrng to opposition against the most 
useful and interesting investigations, we need not be surprised 
that the doctrine of the natural laws has met with a similar 
reception. The charge is made that it leads to infidelity, and 
that its principles are irreconcilable with Scripture. 

It may be useful to observe, that in all ages new doctrines 
have been branded as impious, and that Christianity itself has 
offered no exception to this rule. The Greeks and Romans 
charged Christianity with " impiety and novelty" In Cave's 
Primitive Christianity, we are informed that " the Christians 
were every where accounted a pack of Atheists, and their 
religion the Atheism." They were denominated " mounte- 
bank imposters," and "men of a desperate and unlawful 
faction." They were represented as " destructive and per- 
nicious to human society," and were accused of " sacrilege, 
sedition, ant] high treason." The same system of misrepre- 
sentation and abuse was practised by the Roman Catholics 
against the Protestants, at the Reformation : " Some called 
their dogs Calvin ; and others transformed Calvin into Cain." 
In France, " the old and stale calumnies, formerly invented 
against the first Christians, were again revived by Demo- 
chares, a Doctor of the Sorbonne, pretending that ail the dis- 
asters of the state were to be attributed to Protestants alone/' 

If the views of human nature expounded in this work be 
untrue, the proper answer to them is a demonstration of their 
falsity. If they be true, they are mere enunciations of the 
institutions of the Creator ; and it argues superstitious, and 
not religious feelings, to fear evil consequences from the 
knowledge of what Divine Wisdom has appointed. The 
argument that the results of the doctrine are obviously at 
variance with Scripture, and that therefore the doctrines can 
not be true, is not admissible ; " for," in the words of Dr. 
Whately, " if we really are convinced of the truth of Scrip- 
ture, and consequently of the falsity of any theory (of the 
earth, for instance) which is really at variance with it, we 



SCIENCE AXD SCRITTCRE. 303 

must needs believe that that theory is also at variance with 
observable phenomena ; and we ought not therefore to shrink 
from trying the question by any appeal to these." 

Galilee was told, from hig"h authority in the church, that 
his doctrine of the revolution of the globe was obviously at 
variance with Scripture, and that therefore it could not be 
true ; but as his opinions were founded on palpable facts, 
which could be neither concealed nor denied, they necessarily 
prevailed. If there had been a real opposition between Scrip- 
ture and nature, the only result would have been a demon- 
stration that Scripture in this particular instance was errone- 
ously interpreted ; because the evidence of physical nature is 
imperishable and insuperable, and cannot give way to any 
authority whatever. The same consequence will evidently 
happen in regard to Phrenology. If any fact in physiology 
does actually and directly contradict any interpretation of 
Scripture, it is not difficult to perceive which must yield. 
The human understanding cannot resist evidence founded on 
observation ; and even if it did resist, Nature would not bend 
but continue to operate in her own way in spite of the resist- 
ance, and a new and more correct interpretation of Scripture 
would ultimately become inevitable. Opposition between 
science and revelation I sincerely believe to be impossible, 
when the facts in nature are correctly observed, and divine 
truth is correctly interpreted : but I put the case thus strongly 
to call the serious attention of religious persons to-the mis- 
chievous consequences to religion, of rashly denouncing, at 
adverse to revelation, any doctrine professing to be founded od 
natural facts. Every instance in which the charge is made 
falsely ■, is a gross outrage against revelation itself, and tendi 
to lead men to regard Scripture as an obstacle to the progress 
of science and civilization, instead of being a system of di 
vine wisdom, in harmony with all natural truth. 

All existing interpretations of Scripture have been adopted 
in ignorance of the facts, that every person in whose brain 
the animal organs preporderate greatly over the moral and 
intellectual organs, has a native and instinctive tendency to 
immoral conduct, and vice versa; and that the influence of 
organization is fundamental — that is to say, that no means 
are yet known by which an ill-formed brain may be made to 
manifest the moral and intellectual faculties with the same 
success as a brain of an excellent configuration. An indi- 
vidual possessing a brain like that of Melanethon, represented 



304 ON THE BELATION BETWEEN 

on p. 145, is naturally adapted to receive, comprehend, and 
practice the precepts of Christianity ; whereas it will be found 
extremely difficult to render persons with brains like those of 
Hare, p. 143, Pope Alexander VI., p. 146, Vitellius, p. 148, or 
the Carib, p. 171, practical Christians. Only phrenologists, who 
have observed, for many years, in various situations, and un- 
der different influences, the conduct of individuals constituted 
in these different ways, can conceive the importance of the 
relative development of the cerebral organs ; but after it is 
discovered, the inferences from it are irresistible. The reli- 
gious teachers of mankind are yet ignorant of the most mo- 
mentous fact which nature presents in regard to the moral 
and intellectual improvement of the race. I have heard it 
said that Christianity affords a better and a more instanta- 
neous remedy for human depravity, than improvement of the 
cerebral organization ; because the moment a man is pene- 
trated by the love of God in Christ, his moral and religious 
affections become far stronger and more elevated, whatever 
his brain may be — than those of any individual whatever 
without that love, however noble his cerebral development, 
and however much he may be instructed in natural know- 
ledge. I observe, however, that in this life a man cannot 
become penetrated by the love of God, except through the 
aid of sound and efficient material organs. This fact is di- 
rectly proved by cases of madness and idiocy. Disease in 
the organs is the cause of insanity, and mere deficiency of 
their size is one and an invariable cause of idiocy. See figure 
of idiot head on p. 179. In neither of these states can the 
mind receive the advantages of the Christian doctrine. It is 
therefore obvious that the power of receiving and appreciating 
Christianity itself is modified by th3 condition of the brain ; 
and I venture to affirm, that the influence of the organs does 
not terminate with these extreme cases, but operates in all 
circumstances and in every individual, aiding or impeding the 
reception and efficacy even of revelation. If this were not 
the case, there would be in operation a power capable of in- 
fluencing the human mind, during life, without the interven- 
tion of material organs ; and, accordingly, many excellent 
persons believe this to be scriptural truth, and matter of ex- 
perience also. But those who entertain this opinion are not 
instructed in the functions of the brain ; they are not aware 
of the universally admitted facts, which establish that while 
life continues the mind cannot act or be acted upon except 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 305 

through the medium of organs; nor do they bring forwnrd 
one example of idiots and madmen being rendered pious, 
Practical, and enlightened Christians by this power, notwiths- 
tanding the state of their brains. Cases indeed occur in 
which religious feelings co-exist with partial idiocy 01 par- 
tial insanity ; but in them the organs of these sentiments will 
be discovered to be well developed — and if the feelings be 
sane, the organs will be found unaffected by disease. 

Serious persons who are offended by this doctrine, con- 
stantly forget that the reciprocal influence of the mind and 
brain is not of man's devising, but that God himself esta- 
blished it, and conferred on the organs those qualities which 
He saw to be necessary for executing the purposes to which 
He had appointed them. If the statements now made be 
unfounded, I shall be the first to give them up ; but, believing 
them to be true, I cannot avoid adhering to them. When, 
therefore, I add, that I have never seen an individual with 
large organs of the animal, and small organs of the moral 
and intellectual, faculties, whose conduct was steadily moral, 
under the ordinary temptations of life, however high his reli- 
gious professions might be. I merely state a fact which the 
Creator himself has decreed to exist. Indeed I have seen 
several striking instances of persons, who, after making a 
great profession of religion, ultimately disgraced it: and I 
have observed that in all these instances, without one excep- 
tion, the organs of the inferior propensities were large, and 
those of one or more of the moral sentiments deficient ; and 
I am convinced that the same conclusion, after sufficiently 
accurate and extensive observations, will force itself upon ail 
candid and reflecting minds. 

My inference, therefore, is, that the Divine Spirit, revealed 
in Scripture as a power influencing the human mind, invari- 
ably acts in harmony with the laws of organisation ; because 
the latter, as emanating from the same source, can never be 
in contradiction with the former ; and because a well-consti- 
tuted brain is a condition essential to the existence of Christian 
dispositions. If this be really the fact, and if the constitution 
of the brain be in any degree regulated by the laws of physi- 
ology, it is impossible to doubt that a knowledge of the natu- 
ral laws is destined to exercise a vast influence in rendering 
men capable of appreciating and practising Christianity. 
The manner in which it will do so, is explained in Dr. 
Combe's treatise on " Physiology applied to Health and Edu- 
20 20* 



SC6 OF THE RELATION BETWEEW 

cation," already alluded to. That work contains an exposi- 
tion of the laws of action of the brain, and its connexion 
with, and influence on, the rest of the system, and therefore 
its relations generally to human improvement. 

An admirable portion of Christianity is that in which the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments is explained and enforced 
as a practical doctrine. Love thy neighbor as thyself; all 
mankind are thy neighbors ; blessed are the meek and the 
merciful ; love those that hate you and despitefully use you ; 
seek that which is pure, and holy, and of good report ; — these 
are precepts to be found in Scripture. Now, I have endea- 
vored to show, that the human faculties, and external nature, 
are so constituted as to admit of such precepts being reduced 
to practice on earth — an idea which it has rarely entered into 
the heart of man to conceive as a possibility without miracu- 
lous interference. If the philosophy now explained shall 
carry home to rational men the conviction that the order of 
nature fairly admits of the practical exemplification of these 
precepts by the development of its inherent resources, a new 
direction must necessarily be given to the pursuits of the 
religious instructors of mankind. Christianity, after its esta- 
blishment by Constantine, was left to exert its own influence 
aver the Roman Empire, unaided by printing and natural 
science. It is recorded in history, that it did not suffice to 
arrest the decline of morals and the downfall of the State, 
but was itself corrupted and perverted. In the dark ages 
which followed the subversion of that Empire, it was again 
left, unaided by human learning, to do its best for the regene- 
ration of mankind ; and it became a vast system of supersti- 
tion. Nor was it till after the invention of printing, and the 
revival of letters, that the barbarous superstructures which 
had been raised on the simple foundations of the Gospel were 
cleared away. ^ But the period from the revival of letters to 
the present day, has been the age of scholastic learning, as 
contradistinguished from that of philosophy and science. 
Christianity stands before us, therefore, at present, as inter- 
preted by men who knew extremely little of the science of 
either external nature or the human mind. They have con- 
ceived it to be a system of spiritual influences, of internal 
operations on the soul, and of repentant preparation for ano- 
ther world, rather than an exposition of pure and lofty princi- 
ples inherent in human nature itself, and capable of being 
largely developed and rendered practicable in this world. 



scrr.\r.E axd scripture. 307 

It is a common accusation against philosophy, that th« 
study of it renders men infidels ; and this alledged fact is 
brought forward as a proof that human nature is corrupt, 
blind, and perverse, turning what ought to be its proper food 
into mortal poison. But if this were really a well-founded 
charge, the conclusion which I would draw from it would be, 
that there must be essential errors in the popular interpreta- 
tions of revelation, when the effect of a knowledge of nature 
on the mind is to lead to infidelity. Science is of modern 
growth ; and, down to the present hour, the mass of Christians 
in every country have embraced their faith without the possi- 
bility of comparing it with the revelation of the Divine Will 
contained in the constitution of external nature, which philo- 
sophically speaking, was unknown to them. The facts un- 
folded by science were unknown to the divines who first 
denied the capability of mankind to attain, by the de\ elope- 
ment of their natural powers, a higher moral condition than 
any they have hitherto reached ; and, hence, their decision 
against the capabilities of human nature has been pronounced 
causa noil cognita (the merits being unknown), and must be 
open for reconsideration. If Christianity was freed from 
many errors by the revival and spread of mere scholastic 
learning in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, 
much more may we expect that the interpretations of Scrip- 
ture will be farther purified, corrected, and elucidated, by the 
flood of light which the sciences of human and physical na- 
ture, now in the course of cultivation, will one day shed upon 
religion. 

According to my view, the study of the human constitu- 
tion, of external nature, and of their relations, will become 
an object of paramount importance, with reference to a just 
appreciation of the true meaning of Scripture. Civilized 
man sees infinitely more of true and practical wisdom in 
Scripture than the savage of the wilderness, even supposing 
that the latter could read and understand the words of the 
sacred volume ; and, in like manner, man, when thoroughly 
instructed in his own constitution and in that of externa) 
nature, will discover still profounder truths and more admi- 
rable precepts in that record, than are found in it by ignorant, 
contentious, blind, conceited man, such as he has hitherto 
existed. 

History k full of instruction concerning the insufficiency 
of mere theological knowledge to protect men from practical 



308 OlS THE RELATION BETWEEN 

errors, when their understandings are unenlightened in legard 
to phii ;>sophy and the constitution of nature. The part which 
the religious teachers of Europe acted in regard to witchcraft, 
affords one striking proof of the truth of this remark. 

It was not till towards the close of the 15th century that 
persecutions for witchcraft began to prevail in Europe. By a 
bull of Pope Innocent VIII. in 1484, death was, for the first 
time, denounced without mercy to all who should be convicted 
of witchcraft, or of dealing with Satan ; and a form of pro- 
cess for the trial was regularly laid down by a wretch of the 
name of Sprenger, whom the pope had placed at the head of 
a commission of fire and sword. The succeeding popes, 
Alexander VI. and even Leo X., lent their aid in accelerating 
the course of this havoc-spreading engine. So far, however, 
were the commissions being attended with beneficial conse- 
quences, that their only effect was to render the evil every 
day more formidable ; till, at last, if we are to believe the 
testimony of contemporary historians, Europe was little better 
than a large suburb of Pandemonium. One-half of the popu- 
lation was either bewitching or bewitched. About the year 
1515, 500 witches was executed Vi Geneva in three months. 
A thousand were executed in c c year in the diocese of 
Como; and they went on burni r at the rate of 100 per 
annum for some time after. In Ljrraine, from 1580 to 1595, 
Remigius boasts of having burned 900. In France, the 
multitude of executions about 1520 is incredible. *One his- 
torian calls it " an almost infinite number of sorcerers." 

Germany was so fertile a soil for the supernatural, that, 
from the publication of Innocent's bull to the suppression of 
persecution for witchcraft, the number of victims could not be 
less than 100,000 ! In the town of Wurtzburg alone, in the 
course of two years — 1627-29 — there were twenty-nine acts 
of conflagration, and more than 157 persons burnt; including 
not only old women, but even children as young as nine 
years. In Lindheim, from 1660 to 1664, a twentieth part 
of the whole population y^as consumed. Other places fur- 
nished their full contingent ; and so familiarized was the pub- 
lic with these atrocious scenes, that it relished and gloried in 
them : singing the events of them to populai airs, and repre- 
senting them in hideous engravings, with devils dragging 
away " ther own ;" while the clergy preached solemn dis- 
courses, called " witch-sermons," upon occasion of every sacri* 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 309 

fice — the effect of which was of course to inspire with fresh 
zeal to collect fuel for another. 

England was not free from the same madness. Three 
thousand victims were executed during the reign of the Long 
Parliament alone; and it is a melancholy spectacle to find 
a man like Sir Matthew Hale condemning wretches to de- 
struction, on evidence which a child would now be disposed 
to laugh at. A better order of things commenced with the 
Chief-Justiceship of Holt, in conse uence of whose firm 
charge to the jury on one of these trials, a verdict of not 
guilty — almost the first then on record in a trial for witchcraft 
— was found. In about ten other trials by Holt, from 1694 
to 1701, the result was the same. Yet, in 1716. a Mrs. Hicks, 
and her daughter aged nine, were hanged at Huntingdon for 
selling their souls to the devil, and raising a storm by pulling 
off their stockings and making a lather of soap ! With this 
crowning atrocity, the catalogue of murders in England closes, 
the penal statutes against witchcraft being repealed in 1736, 
and the pretended exercise of such arts being punished in 
future by imprisonment and pillory. 

Barrington, in his observations on the statute of 20th 
Henry VI., does not hesitate to estimate the number of indi- 
viduals put to death in England, on the charge of witchcraft, 
at 30,000 ! 

Scotland, too, must bear her share of the bloody stain of 
these abominable doings. Till the Reformation, little or no 
regard was paid to this subject; but soon after that event, a 
raging thirst for destruction took possession of the nation. 
In 1563, an act of Parliament was passed, enacting the 
punishment of death against witches and consultors with 
witches. The consequences of this authoritative recogni- 
tion of the creed of witchcraft became immediately obvious 
in the reign of James VI., which followed. Witchcraft 
became the all-engrossing topic of the day ; and it was 
the ordinary accusation resorted to, whenever it was the 
object of one individual to ruin another. A number of 
the trials are reported in Mr. Pitcaim's recent and valu- 
able publication of the records of the Court of Justiciary. 
The first case is in 1572, of which no particulars are given, 
except the name of the unfortunate woman, and the doom— • 
M cmivici and brynt" Thirty-five trials are recorded subse- 
quently to the end of James' reign, in all of which the horrid 
result is the same. The trials proceed, in the course of years. 



310 OX THE RELATION BETWEEN 

and the confessions are obtained by torture with thumb- 
screws and boots, and pricking with sharp instruments ; while 
stranglings and burnings follow of course. The scene dark- 
ens towards the close of the reign of Charles I. with the 
increasing dominion of the puritans. In 1640, the General 
Assembly passed an act, that all ministers should take par- 
ticular note of witches and charmers, and that the commiss- 
ioners should recommend to the supreme judicature the un- 
sparing application of the laws against them. In 1643, after 
setting forth the increase of the crime, they recommended the 
granting of a standing commission from the Privy Council or 
Justiciary, to " any understanding gentlemen or magistrates," 
to apprehend, try, and execute justice against delinquents. 
By the urgency of the General Assembly, who resumed the 
subject in 1644, 1645, and 1649, an act of Parliament was 
passed in the last-named year, confirming and extending the 
statute of Queen Mary, passed in 1563. As was to be ex- 
pected, convictions, which had been fewer since James' time, 
increase, and the cases are more horrible. Thirty trials ap- 
pear on the record between 1649 and 1660, in which there 
seems to have been only one acquittal ; " while at one western 
circuit, in 1659, seventeen persons were convicted and burnt 
fvjr the imputed crime. Numerous, however, as are the cases 
in the records of Justiciary, these afford a most inadequate 
idea of the extent to wmich this pest prevailed over the coun- 
try ; for the Privy Council was in the habit of granting com- 
missions to resident gentlemen and ministers, to examine, and 
afterwards to try and execute, witches all over Scotland ; and 
so numerous were these commissions, that one author ex- 
presses his astonishment at the number found in the registers. 
Under these commissions, multitudes were burnt in every 
part of the kingdom. 

It is matter of history, that, in cases of this kind, the clergy 
displayed the most intemperate zeal. It was before them that 
the poor wretches were first brought for examination — in 
most cases after a preparatory course of solitary confinement, 
cold, famine, want of sleep, or actual torture. On some occa- 
sions, the clergy themselves actually performed the part of the 
prickers, and inserted long pins into the ilesh of the witches, 
in order to try their sensibility ; and, in all cases, they labored 
with the most persevering investigations to obtain from the 
accused a confession which might afterwards be used against 
them on their trials, and which, in more than one instance. 



■CIEXC1 A\n SCRIPTURE. Ill 

formed, although retracted, the sole evidence on which the 
conviction took place. 

After 1662, the violence of the mania in Scotland began 
to decline ; and to the great lawyers of the time is due the 
credit of first stemming the foul torrent. " From the horrid- 
ness of the crime," says Sir George Mackenzie in his Criminal 
Law, "I do conclude, that of all crimes it requires the clearest 
relevancy and most convincing probature ; and I condemn, 
next to the wretches themselves, those cruel and too forward 
judges, who burn persons by thousands as guilty of this 
crime." The trials after this became fewer and fewer, and 
the last execution took place at Dornoch in 1722. The- sta- 
tutes were finally repealed in 1735.* 

So little light did the Bible afford regarding the atrocity of 
the proceedings against witches, that the Secession Church 
of Scotland, comprising many intelligent clergymen and a 
large number of the most serious and religious of the people, 
complained, in their annual Confession of personal and na- 
tional sins (printed in an act of their Associate Presbytery 
at Edinburgh in 1743), of "the penal statutes against witches 
having been repealed by Parliament, contrary to the express 
law of God" This defection is classed by Dr. John Brown 
of Haddington, one of the great leaders of the Secession 
Church about the middle and end of last century, among 
"the practical backslidings from the once attained to and 
covenanted work of reformation, which have happened in the 
preceding and present age, as abuses of the singular favors 
of God. 

During the whole of these proceedings, the clergy, both 
Catholic and Protestant, were in possession of revelation as 
fully and freely as they are at the present day ; and in Scot- 
land, in particular, the Reformation had been completed, and 
the people put in possession of the Bible, nearly* a century 
before the cessation of these persecutions. Not only so, but 
the Bible itself was perversely used as the warrant of the 
atrocities, and religion employed to fan the flame of cruelty 
and superstition. If any facts can prove that the Creator 
intended man to use his intellectual faculties, and to study 
the revelation of His will contained in the works of nature, 

* These particulars respecting persecutions for witchcraft are given 
on the authority of a learned and elaborate article, understood to be 
from the pen of Professor Moir of Edinburgh, in the 11th Numb-r of 
th«- Foreign Quarterly Review. 



S*2 €!? THE B ELATION BETWEEN 

in addition to the Bible, as a guide to his conduct — and that 
the Bible was never intended to supersede the necessi y of all 
other knowledge, — those now detailed must have this effect, 
The great difference between Christians of the present day, 
who regard these executions as great crimes, and the pious 
ministers who inflicted, and the serious people who witnessed 
them, consists in the superior knowledge possessed by the 
moderns, of physical science, which has opened up to their 
understandings views of nature and of God, widely different 
from those entertained by their ancestors under the guidance 
of the Bible alone. 

Nothing can afford a more convincing proof of the ne- 
cessity of using all the lights in our power, by which to 
ascertain the true meaning of Scripture and the soundness 
of our interpretations of it, than the wide diversity of the 
Opinions which even the most learned and pious divines have 
based upon the Bible. Another fact of some importance in 
relation to this matter is, that the manuscripts which handed 
down the sacred writings to us from ancient times vary in 
many important passages, sometimes through the ignorance 
and carelessness of transcribers, and sometimes in conse- 
quence of willful corruption and interpolations by contending 
sects. The following passages, extracted from a celebrated 
treatise by one of the greatest ornaments of the Church o/ 
England, Bishop Taylor, are exceedingly instructive on this 
subject. " There are," says he, " so many thousands of copies, 
that were written by persons of several interests and pursua- 
sions — such different understandings and tempers — such dis- 
tinct abilities and weaknesses — that it is no wonder there is so 
great a variety of readings both in the Old Testament and in 
the New. In the Old Testament, the Jews pretend that the 
Christians have corrupted many places, on purpose to make 
symphony between both the Testaments. On the other side, 
the Christians have had so much reason to suspect the Jews, 
that when Aquila, had translated the Bible in their schools, 
and had been taught by them, they rejected the edition, ma*iy 
of them, and some of them called it heresy to follow it. Ana 
Justin Martyr justified it to Tryphon, that the Jews had de- 
falked many sayings from the books of the old prophets. . . . 
I shall not need to urge, that there are some words so near in 
sound that the scribes might easily mistake. . . . The in- 
stances of this kind are too many, as appears in the variety 
of readings in several copies, proceeding from the negligence 



SCIENCE AND SCRIPTURE. 313 

or ignorance of the transcribers, or the malicious endeavor of 
heretics, or the inserting marginal notes in the text, or the 
nearness of several words. . . . But so it is that this variety 
of reading is not of slight consideration ; for although it he 
demonstrably true, that all things necessary to faith and 
good manners are preserved from alteration and corruption, 
because they are of things necessary, and they could not be ne- 
cessary unless they were delivered to us — God, in his goodness 
and his justice, having obliged himself to preserve that which 
he hath bound us to observe and keep ; yet, in other things 
which God hath not obliged himself so punctually to pre- 
serve, in these things, since variety of reading is crept in, 
every reading takes away a degree of certainty from any 
proposition derivative from those places so read: and if some 
copies, especially if they be public and notable, omit a verse 
or a tittle, every argument from such a tittle or verse loses 
much of its strength and reputation." — Discourse of the 
Liberty of Prophesying, sect. iii. § 4. 

As to consulting the Scriptures in the original tongues, this, 
says the Bishop, "is to small . purpose : for indeed it will ex- 
pound the Hebrew and the Greek, and rectify translations; 
but I know no man that says that the Scriptures in Hebrew 
and Greek are easy and certain to be understood, and that 
they are hard in Latin and English : the difficulty is in the 
thing, however it be expressed — the least is in the language. 
If the original languages were our mother-tongue, Scripture 
is not much the easier to us : and a natural Greek or a Jew 
can with no more reason or authority obtrude his interpreta- 
tions upon other men's consciences, than a man of another 
nation. Add to this, that the inspection of the original is no 
more certain way of interpretation of Scripture now, than it 
was to the fathers and primitive age of the Church ; and yet 
he that observes what infinite variety of translations were in 
the first ages of the Church (as St Jerome observes), and 
never a one like another, will think that we shall differ as 
rmch in our interpretations as they did, and that the medium 
is as uncertain to us as it was to them ; and so it is : witness 
the great number of late translations, and the infinite number 
of commentaries, which are too pregnant an argument that 
we neither agree in the understanding of the words nor of 
the sense." " Men," he adds most justly, " do not learn tneir 
doctrines from Scripture, but come to the understanding of 
Scripture with preconceptions and ideas of doctrines of their 
27 



814 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

own ; and then no wonder that scriptures look like picture?, 
wherein every man in the room believes they look on him 
only, and that wheresoever he stands or how often soever he 
changes his station."— Sect. iv. § 5, 6. 

The folly of setting up any isolated passage of Scripture 
against truths brought to light by experiment and observation, 
is rendered still more obvious by what Bishop Taylor says re- 
specting the extreme difficulty of discovering the real meaning 
of many parts of the Bible, even where there are sufficient 
grounds for believing the text to be genuins. " Since there 
are in Scripture," he observes, " many other mysteries, and 
matters of question, upon which there is a veil; since there 
are so many copies with infinite varieties of reading; since a 
various inter.punctiori, a parenthesis, a letter, an accent, may 
much alter the sense ; since some places have divers literal 
Benses, many have spiritual, mystical, and allegorical mean- 
ings ; since there are so many tropes, metonymies, ironies, 
hyperboles, proprieties and improprieties of language, whose 
understanding depends upon such circumstances that it is 
almost impossible to know the proper interpretation, now that 
the knowledge of such circumstances and particular stories is 
irrevocably lost: since there are some mysteries which, at 
the best advantage of expression, are not easy to be appre- 
hended ; and whose explication, by reason of our imperfections, 
must needs be dark, sometimes weak, sometimes unintelligible : 
and, lastly, since those ordinary means of expounding Scrip- 
ture, as searching the originals, conference of places, parity of 
reason, and analogy of faith, are all dubious, uncertain, and 
very fallible ; he that is wisest, and, by consequence, the like- 
liest to expound truest in all probability of reason, will be 
very far from confidence ; because every one of these, and 
many more, are like so many degrees of improbability and 
uncertainty, all depressing our certainty of finding out truth 
in such mysteries, and amidst so many difficulties. And 
therefore a wise man, that considers this, would not willingly 
be prescribed by others ; and therefore, if he also be a just 
man, he will not impose upon others ; for it is best every man 
should be left in that liberty from which no man can justly 
take him, unless he could secure him from error. — Sect. iv. § 8. 

On this subject the reader is referred also to an able " Es- 
•ay on the Plenary and Verbal Inspiration of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, by Donald Fraser, D. D., Minister of the (xospel, Ken- 



SCIENCE 1X1) SCRIPTURE. 315 

noway, Fifeshire."* The following passage illustrates th« 
propriety of acting upon Bishop Taylor's suggestions: — "Be 
it observed, that when the New Testament writers, in quoting 
from the Old, affirm that the Scripture was fulfilled, they do 
not always mean that an ancient prediction was literally ac- 
complished. In some instances they apply this term to the 
verification of a type; as when John, after relating the cir- 
cumstance of the soldiers not breaking the legs of Jesus, adds 
a quotation respecting the paschal lamb : ' These things were 
done that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him 
shall not be broken.' (Chap. xix. 36, compared with Exod. 
xii. 36.) In other places they only accommodate the citation 
to the subject of their narrative. Thus, Matthew, after re- 
lating Herod's cruel murder of the babes in Bethlehem and 
its vicinity, immediately adds: — 'Then was fulfilled that 
which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama 
was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great 
mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not 
be comforted, because they are not.' (Matth. ii. 17, 18, com* 
pared with Jer. xxxi. 15.) That is to say, the great lamenta- 
tion and inconsolable grief amongst the mothers of Bethlehem, 
occasioned by Herod's embruing his hands in the blood of 
their unoffending children, may be happily illustrated by the 
prophet's description of the sorrows attending the Babylonish 
captivity ; where, by a beautiful figure, he represents Rachel 
as bitterly deploring the loss of her offspring. 

" An important critical observation of the late Dr. Camp- 
bell's must not be omitted. He justly observes, that, in many 
passages of the New Testament, it would have been pfoper 
to render the original term 7t?.*7pOu> by the English word verify t 
in preference to fulfil; for this last word ' has a much more 
limited signification, and gives a handle to cavillers where 
the original gives none. It makes the sacred penmen appear 
to call those things predictions which plainly were not, and 
which they never meant to denominate predictions." Verify 
is, accordingly; the term which that distinguished interpreter 
usually prefers in his own Translation of the Four Gospels.' 
■ — Chap. iii. § 7. 

In the remarks offered in the present chapter, 1 do not de- 
preciate the importance of the Bible; I only very humbly 
endeavor to vindicate the study of the Creator's will in hir 

♦ Affleck, Edinburgh, and Ruthergien and Co. Glasgow, 1834. 



316 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

works as well as in his word — to show that the human mind 
needs illumination from both to direct our conduct towards 
virtue — and to prove that, without knowledge of the former, 
we may grievously misunderstand the meaning of the latter. 
In the words of Achbishop Whately, I consider that "we are 
bound to use our own natural faculties in the search after all 
that is within the reach of these faculties ; and that most espe- 
cially ought we to try, by their own proper evidence, questions 
which form no part of revelation, properly so called, but which 
are incidentally alluded to in the Sacred Writings." "If it be 
true that man's duty coincides with his real interest, both in 
this world and in the next, the better he is qualified, by intel- 
lectual culture and diffusion of knowledge, to understand his 
duty and his interests, the greater prospect there would seem 
to be (other points being equal) of his moral improvement." 
An objection has been stated against the doctrine of the 
divine government of the world by established laws, that it is 
inconsistent with the belief in the efficacy of prayer. This 
objection has been often urged and answered ; indeed it has 
been deliberately settled by the Church of Scotland itself, in 
harmony with the views advocated in this treatise. In a 
Sermon on Prayer, by the Kev. William Leechman, D. D., 
Principal, and • Professor of Divinity, in the College of Glas- 
gow, the following passage occurs : — " It is objected," says 
he, " That, since God is infinite in goodness, he is always 
disposed to bestow on his creatures whatever is proper for 
them; and since he is infinite in wisdom, he will always 
choose the fittest time, and best manner of bestowing it. To 
what purpose, then do we entreat him to do what he cer- 
tainly will do without any solicitation or importunity V To 
this it may be answered, That, as it is not the design of 
prayer to give information to our Creator of things he was 
not acquainted with before ; so neither is it the design of it 
to move his affections, as good speakers move the hearts of 
their hearers, by the pathetic arts of oratory ; nor to raise his 
pity, as beggars, by their importunities and tears, work upon 
the compassion of the bystanders. God is not subject to 
those sudden passions and emotions of mind which we feel ; 
nor to any change of his measures and conduct by their influ- 
ence : he is not wrought upon and changed by our prayers ; 
for with him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. 
Prayer only works its effect upon us, as it contributes to 
change the temper of our minds, to beget or improve right 



SCIENCE AND SCniPTURE. 317 

dispositions in them, to lay them open to the impressions of 
spiritual objects, and thus qualify us for receiving the favor 
and approbation of our Maker, and all those assistance? 
which he has promised to those who call upon him in sin- 
cerity and in truth. The efficacy of prayer does not lie in 
the mere asking ; but in its being the means of producing 
that frame of mind which qualifies us to receive."* 

Dr. Leechman was prosecuted for the alleged heresy of 
hese doctrines before the Presbytery of Glasgow, in Febru- 
ry 1744. The opinion of the Presbytery was unfavorable; 
but the question w 7 as appealed to the Synod, which " found 
no reason to charge the said Professor with any unsoundness 
in the faith, expressed in the passages of the sermon com- 
plained of." The case was afterwards carried by appeal to 
the General Assembly. " That court," says Dr. Wodrow, in 
his Life of Dr. Leechman, prefixed to the Sermons, " when 
the cause came before them, wisely referred it to a select com- 
mittee, and adopted their judgment without a vote. They 
found, 'That the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr had sufficient 
reason to take into their own hands the cognizance of the 
inquiry touching the sermon.' They confirmed the judgment 
passed by that Synod, and ' prohibited the Presbytery of Glas- 
gow to commence or carry on any further or other proceedings 
against the Professor, on account of that sermon." 

Since this decision, the views delivered by Professor Leech- 
man have been unhesitatingly taught by Scotch divines. Dr. 
Blair, in his serman u On the Unehangeableness of the Di- 
vine Nature," observes : " It will be proper to begin this head 
of Discourse by removing an objection which the doctrine I 
have illustrated may appear to form against religious services, 
and, in particular, against the duty of prayer. To what pur- 
pose, it may be urged, is homage addressed to a Being whose 
purpose is unalterably fixed ; to whom our righteousness ex- 
teridetJi. not ; whom by no arguments we can pursuade, and 
by no supplications we can mollify ] The objection would 
have weight, if our religious addresses were designed to work 
any alteration on God ; either by giving him information of 
what he did not know, or by exciting affections which he did 
not possess ; or by inducing him to change measures which 
bad previously formed. But they are only crude and imper- 
fect notions of religion which can suggest sucn ideas. Th« 

*Dr. Leechman's Sermons. Lond. 1789, Serm. iii. p. 192 
27* 



315 ON THE RELATION BETWEEN 

change which our devotions are intended to make, is upon 
ourselves, not upon the Almighty. Their chief efficacy ia 
derived from the good dispositions which they raise and 
cherish in the human soul. By pouring out pious sentiment-? 
and desires before God, by adoring his perfection and con- 
fessing our own unworthiness, by expressing our dependence 
on his aid, and our gratitude for his past favors, our submis- 
sion to his present will, our trust in his future mercy ,we culti- 
vate such affections as suit our place and station in the uni- 
verse, and are thereby prepared for becoming objects of the 
divine grace.'' — Vol. ii. 

The same views were taught by the philosophers of the 
last century. " The Being that made the world," says Lord 
Kames, " governs it by laws that are inflexible, because they 
are the best ; and to imagine that he can be moved by pray- 
ers, oblations, or sacrifices, to vary his plan of government, is 
an impious thought, degrading the Deity to a level with our- 
selves." His lordship's opinion relative to the advantage of 
public worship, shows that he did not conceive the foregoing 
view of prayer to be in the least inconsistent with its reason- 
ableness and utility. " The principle of devotion," he says, 
"like most of our other principles, partakes of the imperfec- 
tion of our natures ; yet, however faint originally, it is capa- 
ble of being greatly invigorated by cultivation and exercise. 
Private exercise is not sufficient. Nature, and consequently 
the God of nature, require public exercise or public worship , 
for devotion is communicative, like joy or grief; and, by mu- 
tual communication in a numerous assembly, is greatly in- 
vigorated. A regular habit of expressing publicly our gratitude 
and resignation never fails to purify the mind, tending to 
wean it from every unlawful pursuit. This is the true mo- 
tive of public worship ; not what is commonly inculcated — 
that it is required from us as a testimony to our Maker of our 
obedience to his laws : God, who knows the heart, needs no 
such testimony."* 

In closing this chapter, I may observe, that many excellent 
and sincere Christians, to whom I am most anxious to avoid 
giving offence, labor under great disadvantages in judging of 
the truth and importance of several of the views stated in 
this Work, in consequence of their entire ignorance of the 
functions of the brain, and the laws of its acti rity. Many of 



Sketches, B. Hi. Sk. 3. Ch. iii. $ t. 



SCIENCE AND SCHIPTURE. 319 

them nave been educated in the belief, that human nature is 
entirely corrupt and wicked ; and when, in consequence of 
private or public devotion, they become conscious of vivid 
love to God and benevolence to men, arid of aspirations after 
general purity and excellence, springing up in their minds, 
they ascribe these emotions exclusively to the direct influence 
of the Divine Spirit — without being in the least aware of the 
extent to which a large developement of the moral organs, 
combined with an active temperament, contributes to this 
effect. The phrenologist, in contemplating these organs ope- 
rating in excess, or in a state of disease, obtains light on this 
subject which other persons cannot reach. Mere excess in 
size and activity leads to fanaticism and a persuasion of inspi- 
ration, such as occurred in Bunyan, Swedenborg, and the late 
Edward Irving. I examined the head of the Reverend Ed- 
ward Irving before he had become known to the public, and 
noted the organs of Imitation, Wonder, Ideality, Veneration, 
Self-Esteem, Conscientiousness, and Firmness, as large ; Won- 
der, Self-Esteem, and Firmness predominated ; and these ap- 
pear to have attained almost to diseased activity in the latter 
years ot his life. Diseased activity produces belief in actual 
communication with heaven. Christianity cannot fail to be 
benefitted by the light which Phrenology is shedding on the 
organs in health as well as in disease.* 



CONCLUSION. 

The question has frequently been asked, What is the prac- 
tical use of Phrenology, even supposing it to be true 1 A few 
observations will enable us to answer this inquiry, and, at the 
same time, to present a brief summary of the doctrine of the 
preceding work. 

Prior to the age of Copernicus, the earth and sun pre- 
sented to the eye phenomenon exactly similar to those which 
they now exhibit ;' but their motions appeared in a very dif- 
ferent light to the understanding. 

* See on this subject Dr Andrew Combe's Observations on Mental 
Derangement, pp. 184-189; Sjsteni of Phrenology, section on Won- 
der; Remarks on Demonoio'-rj and Witchcraft, in the Phrenological 
Jour, vi 501; and in the 44th and 45th Numbers of the same Jour- 
nal, "Observations on Religious Fanaticism, illustrated by a Com- 
parison of the Belief and Conduct of Noted Religious Enthusiast! 
with those of Patients in the Montrose Lunatic Asylum. By W. A. 
F Browne, Esq., Medical Superiutendant of that Institution m 



820 coxclusiok. 

Before the age of Newton, the revolutions of the planets 
were known as matter of fact ; but mankind was ignorant of 
the principle of their motions. 

Previously to the dawn of modern chemistry, many of the 
qualities of physical substances were ascertained by observa- 
tion ; but their ultimate principles and relations were not un- 
derstood. 

Knowledge, as I observed in the Introduction, may be 
made beneficial in two ways — either by rendering the sub- 
stance discovered directly subservient to human enjoyment, 
or, where this is impossible, by modifying human con- 
duct in harmony with its qualities. While knowledge of any 
department of nature remains imperfect and impirical, the 
unknown qualities of the objects comprehended in it may 
render our efforts either to apply or to act in accordance with 
those which are known, altogether abortive. Hence it is only 
after ultimate principles have been discovered, their relations 
ascertained, and this knowledge systematized, that science 
can attain its full character of utility. The merits of Co- 
pernicus and Newton consist in having rendered this service 
to astronomy. 

Before the appearance of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, man- 
kind were practically acquainted with the feelings and intel- 
lectual operations of their own minds, and anatomists knew 
the appearances of the brain. But the science of mind was 
very much in the same state as that of the heavenly bodies 
prior to the times of Copernicus and Newton. 

First, No unanimity prevailed among the philosophers con- 
cerning the elementary feelings and intellectual powers of 
man. Individuals deficient in Conscientiousness, for instance, 
denied that the sentiment of justice was a primitive mental 
quality : others, deficient in Veneration, asserted that man 
was not naturally prone to worship, and ascribed religion to 
the invention of priests. 

Secondly, The extent to which the primitive faculties dif- 
fer in strength, was matter of dispute, or of vague conjecture ; 
and, concerning many attainments, there was no agreement 
among philosophers whether they were the gifts of nature or 
the results of mere cultivation. 

Thirdly, Different modes or states of the same feeling were 
often mistaken for different feelings; and modes of action 
of all the intellectual faculties were mistaken for dbtind 
faculties. 



CONCLUSION. 321 

Fourthly, The brain, confessedly the most important ortran 
of the hotly, and that with which the nerves of the senses, of 
motion, and of feeling, directly communicate, had no ascer- 
tained functions. Mankind were ignorant of its uses, and of 
its influence on the mental faculties. They indeed still dis- 
pute that its different parts are the organs of different mental 
powers, and that the vigor of each faculty hears a proportion, 
caeteris paribus, to the size of its organ. 

If, in physics, imperfect and empercial knowledge renders 
the unknown qualities of bodies liable to frustrate the efforts 
of man to apply or to accommodate his conduct to their 
known qualities — and if only a complete and systematic ex- 
nibition of ultimate principles, and their relations, can confer 
»n science its full character of utility — the same doctrine ap- 
plies with equal or greater force to the philosophy of man. 

The science of Politics embraces forms of government, 
and the relations between different states. All government is 
designed to combine the efforts of individuals, and to regulate 
their conduct when united. To arrive at the best means of 
accomplishing this end, systematic knowledge of the nature 
of man seems highly important. A despotism, for example, 
may restrain some abuses of the propensities, but it assuredly 
impedes the exercise of reflection, and others of the highest 
and noblest powers. A form of government can be suited to 
the nature of man only when it is calculated to permit the 
legitimate use, and to restrain the abuses, of all his mental 
feelings and capacities: and how can such a government be 
devised, while these faculties, with their spheres of action and 
external relations, are imperfectly ascertained ? Again, all 
relations between different states must also be in accordance 
with the nature of man, to prove permanently beneficial ; and 
the question recurs, How are these to be framed while that 
nature is a matter of conjecture] Napoleon disbelieved in a 
sentiment of justice as an innate quality of the mind, and, in 
nis relations with other states, relied on fear and interest as 
ihe grand motives of conduct: but that sentiment existed, and 
combined with other faculties which he outraged — prompted 
Europe to hurl him from his throne. If Napoleon had com- 
prehended the principles of human nature, and their relations, 
as forcibly and clearly as the principles of mathematics, in 
which he excelled, his understanding would have greatly 
modified his conduct, and Europe would have escaped pro- 
digious ralamities. 
21 



S'22 so.xLjsiOjr. 

Legislation, civil and criminal, is intended to regulate 
and direct the human faculties in their efforts at gratification ; 
and laws, to be useful, must accord with the constitution of 
these faculties. But how can salutary laws be enacted, while 
the subject to be governed, or human nature, is not accurately 
understood 7 The inconsistency and intricacy of the laws, even 
h enlightened nations, have afforded themes for the satirist in 
every age ;— -yet how could the case be otherwise '} Legislators 
provided rules for directing the qualities of human nature, which 
they conceived themselves to know ; but either error in their 
conceptions, or the effects of other qualities unknown or un- 
attended to, defeated their intentions. The law, for example, 
punishing heresy with burning, was addressed by our ances- 
tors to Cautiousness and the Love of Life ; but Intellect, 
Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Firmness, were omitted in 
their estimate of human principles of action; — and these set 
the law at defiance. There are many laws still in the Statute- 
Book, equally at variance with the nature of man. 

Education- is intended to enlighten the intellect, to train 
it and the moral sentiments to vigor, and to repress the too 
great activity of the selfish feelings. But how can this be 
successfully accomplished, when the faculties and sentiments 
themselves, the laws to which they are subjected, and their 
relations to external objects, are unascertained] Accord- 
ingly, the theories and practices observed in education are 
innumerable and contradictory; which could not happen if 
men knew the constitution of the object which they were 
training. 

In an " Essai sur la Statistique morale de la France," by 
Mons. A. M. Guerry, published at Paris in 1833, it is stated 
that crimes against property and person are most numerous 
in proportion to the population in those departments of France 
— the north and east — in which the people are best educated, 
the richest, and the most industrious. This must be owing 
in part to the increased power which education gives of doing 
%ither good or evil, and partly to the defects in the education 
afforded.* The philosophy of man being unknown, children 

* It is proper to remark, however, that M. Guerry's statement, sup* 
posing it to be grounded on sufficient data, does not show that edu- 
cation tends to increase rather than diminish crime; for, as a writer 
\a the Phrenological Journal observes, " until it be proved that edu 
cation has the same kind of subjects to operate on in every part of 
France, its effects cannot be judged of from such data as those fur 
aisbed by M. Guerry." After stating reasons for concluding thai 



CONCLUSIONS R23 

are not taught any rational views of the r >iar, » lfe, ^ey 
are not instructed in the constitution of society, and obtain n<i 
sufficient information concerning the sources of real enjoy- 
ment. They see not taught any system of morals based oh 
the nature of man and his social relations, but are left each 
to grope his way to happiness according to the dictates of 
his individual mind. They see the rich pursuing pleasure 
and fashion ; and if they follow such examples, they must 
resort to crime for the means of gratification : yet there is n 
6olid instruction given to them, sufficient to satisfy their under- 
standings that the rich themselves are straying from the paths 
that lead to solid and lasting happiness, and that it is to be 
found only in other and higher occupations. 

Morals and Religion, also, cannot assume a systematic 
and thoroughly demonstrable character, until the elementary 

the generality of heads are better in some parts of France than in 
ocners, the writer adds. "Now, this important fact ought not to be 
overlooked, as it has hitherto been, in judging of the influence of 
education ; for it can hardly be doubted, that educated but inferior 
minds will display less morality than minds which are uneducated 
but naturaliy much superior. What should we say of a man who 
should call in question the efficacy of medical treatment, because a 
patient tainted from birth with consumption, and who had been long 
under the care of a physician, was not so healthy as a person with 
naturally sound lungs, who had never taken medical advice in his 
life? But for the treatment, the consumptive man would have been 
much worse than he actually was, and probably would have died in 
early youth. To judge correctly, therefore, of the question at issue, 
we must compare the present amount of crime in particular depart- 
ments of France, with its amount in the same departments when there 
was either very little instruction or none at all. In this manner we 
shall also avoid being misled by the effects of other influences; such 
as the density or thinness of the population — the employment of the 
people in agriculture or manufactures— and their residence on the 
coast, in the interior, or in mountainous or fertile districts. Were 
such atrial made, I think it would almost without exception be found 
in cases where no great change of circumstances had occurred, that 
inexact proportion to the increase of education there had been an ob- 
vious diminution of crime. I am well aware that, by the system of 
instruction generally pursued, the moral feelings, which restrain from 
crime, are wholly neglected; but cultivation even of the intellect ap- 
pears favorable to morality; Jirst, by giving periods of repose to the 
lower propensities of whose excessive activity crime is the result; 
secondly, by promoting the formation of habits of regularity, subordi- 
nation, and obedience; and, thirdly, by strengthening and informing 
the intellect, and thereby enabling it to see more clearly the danger- 
ous consequences of crime. No doubt there are criminals on whom 
an excellent intellectual education has been bestowed; but Instead of 
thence inferring that education increases the liability of mankind to 
crime, I think it may with great reason be asked, whether, had the 
s-tme individuals wanted education altogether, their crimes would not 
have been ten times more atrocious.'*— Phrcn. Jour t vol. at p. 968 



324 conclusion. 

faculties of the mind, and their relations, shall be ascertained. 
It is presumable that the Deity, in creating the moral pow 
ers and the external world, realty adapted the one to the 
other ; so that individuals and nations, in pursuing morality, 
must, in every instance, be promoting their best interests, and, 
in departing from it, must be sacrificing them to passion or to 
illusory notions of advantage. But, until the nature of man, 
and the relationship between it and the external world, shall 
be scientifically ascertained, and systematically expounded, it 
will be impossible to support morality by the powerful demon- 
stration that interest coincides with it. The tendency in 
most men to view expediency as not always coincident with 
justice, affords a striking proof of the limited knowledge of 
the constitution of man and the external world still existing 
in society. 

The diversities of doctrine in religion, too, obviously owe 
their origin to ignorance of the primitive faculties and their 
relations. The relative strength of the faculties diifers in 
different individuals, and each person is most alive to objects 
and views connected with powers predominant in himself. 
Hence, in reading the Scriptures, one is convinced that they 
establish Calvinism ; another, possessing a different combina- 
tion of faculties, discovers in them Lutheranism ; and a third 
is satisfied that Unitarianism is the only true interpretation. 
These individuals have, in general, no distinct conception 
that the views which strike them most forcibly, appear in a 
different light to minds differently constituted. A correct 
interpretation of revelation must harmonize with the dictates 
of the moral sentiments and well-informed intellect, holding the 
animal propensities in subordination. It may legitimately go 
beyond what they, unaided, could reach ; but it cannot contra- 
dict them ; because this would be setting the revelation of the 
Bible in opposition to the dictates of the regulating faculties 
constituted by the Creator — a proceeding which cannot be 
admitted, since the Deity is too powerful and wise to be 
inconsistent. But mankind will never be induced to bow to 
such interpretations, while each takes his individual mind as 
a standard of human nature in general, and conceives that 
his own impressions are identical with absolute truth. The 
establishment of the philosophy of man, therefore, on a scien- 
tific basis, and in a systematic form, must aid the cause both 
«f morality and of religion. 

The professions, pursuits, hours of exertion, and 



CONCLUSION. 32. r > 

amusements of individuals, ought also to tear reference to 
their physical and mental constitution; but hitherto no guiding 
principle has been possessed to regulate practice in these im- 
portant particulars — another evidence that the science of man 
has been unknown. 

In consequence of the want of a philosophy of man, there 
is little harmony between the different departments of human 
pursuit. God is one ; and as he is intelligent, benevolent, 
and powerful, we may reasonably conclude that creation is 
one harmonious system, in which the phv =^dl is adapted to 
the moral, the moral to the physical, and every department of 
these grand divisions to the whole. But at present, many 
principles clearly revealed by philosophy are impracticable, 
because the institutions of society have not been founded 
with a due regard to their existence. An educated lady, for 
example, or a member of one of the learned professions, may 
perceive with the clearest conviction that God, by the manner 
in which he has constituted the body, and connected the mind 
with the brain, has positively enjoined muscular exertion, as 
indispensable to the possession of sound health, the enjoy- 
ment of life, and the rearing of a healthy offspring; and 
nevertheless, they may find themselves so hedged round by 
routine of employment, the fashions of society, the influence 
of opinion, and the positive absence of all arrangement* 
suited to the purpose, that they are rendered nearly as inca- 
pable of yielding this obedience to God's law, as if they wc* 
imprisoned in a dungeon. 

By religion we are commanded to set our affections op 
things above, and not to permit our minds to be engrossed 
with the cares of the world ; we are desired to seek godliness, 
and eschew selfishness, contention, and the vanities of life. 
These precepts must have been intended to be practically 
followed, otherwise it was a mockery of mankind to give 
them foith: But if they were intended to be practised, God 
must have arranged the inherent constitution of man, and 
that of the world, in such a manner as to admit of mankind 
obeying them — and not only so, but to render men happy in 
proportion as they should practise, and miserable as they 
should neglect them. Nevertheless, when we survey human 
society in the forms in which it has hitherto existed, and in 
which it now exists, these precepts appear to have been, and 
to be now, absolutely impracticable to ninety-nine out of 
avery hundred oi civilized men. Suppose the most eloquent 
28 



326 CONCLUSION. 

and irresistibly convincing discourse on the Christian duties 
to be delivered on Sunday to. a congregation of Manchester 
manufacturers and their operatives, or to London mer- 
chants, Essex farmers, or Westminster lawyers, how would 
they find their respective spheres of life adapted for acting 
practically on their convictions ] They are all commanded 
to love God with their whole heart and soul, and to resist the 
world and the flesh, or, in philosophical language, to support 
their moral affections and intellectual powers in habitua. 
activity — to dnect them to noble, elevating, and beneficia. 
objects — and to resist the subjugation of these higher attri- 
butes of their minds to animal pleasure, sordid selfishness, 
and worldly ambition. The moral and intellectual powers 
assent to the reasonableness of these precepts, and rejoice in 
the prospect of their practical application ; but, on Monday 
morning, the manufacturers, owing to the institutions of so- 
ciety, and the department of life into which they have been 
cast before they had either reason or moral perception to 
direct their choice, must commence a course of ceaseless toil 
— the workmen that they may support life, and the masters 
that they may avoid ruin, or accumulate wealth. Saturday 
evening finds them worn out with mental and bodily exertion, 
continued through all the intermediate days, and directed to 
pursuits connected with this world alone. Sunday dawns 
upon them in a state of mind widely at variance with the 
Christian conditon. In like manner, the merchant must de- 
vote himself to his bargains, the farmer to his plough, and the 
lawyer to his briefs, with corresponding assiduity ; so that 
their moral powers have neither objects presented to them, 
nor vigor left for enjoyments befitting their nature and de- 
sires. It is in vain to say to individuals that they err in 
acting thus : individuals are cairied along in the great stream 
of social institutions and pursuits. The operative laborer is 
compelled to follow his routine of toil under pain of absolute 
starvation. The master-manufacturer, the merchant, the farmer, 
•nd the lawyer, are pursued by competitors so active, that if 
they relax in selfish ardor, they will be speedily plunged into 
ruin. If God has so constituted the human mind and body 
and so arranged external nature, that all this is unavoidably 
necessary for man, then the Christian precepts are scarcely 
more suited to human nature and circumstances in this world, 
than the command to fly would be to the nature of the horse. 
Ifc on the other hand, man's nature and circumstances do in 



conclusion. 3'J7 

themselves admit of the Christian precepts brine: realized, it 
is obvious that a great revolution must take place id our 
notions, principles of action, practices, and social institutions, 
Z>efore this can be accomplished. That many Christian teach- 
ers believe this improvement possible, and desire its execution, 
I cannot doubt ; but through want of knowledge of the consti- 
tuent elements of human nature, and their relations — through 
want, in short, of a philosophy of mind and of physical na- 
ture — they have never been able to perceive what God has 
rendered man capable of attaining — how it may be attained — 
or on what principles the moral and physical government of 
the world in regard to man is conducted. Consequently , they 
have not acted generally on the idea of religion being a branch 
of an all-comprehending philosophy ; they have relied chiefly 
on inculcating the precepts of cheir Master, threatening future 
punishments for disobedience, and promising future rewards 
for observance — without proving to society philosophically, 
not only that its institutions, practices, and principles, must 
be erected on loftier ground than they are at present before it 
can become truly Christian — but that these improvements are 
actually within the compass of human nature, aided by reve- 
lation. Individuals in whom there is a strong aspiration after 
the realization of the Christian state of society, but whose 
intellects cannot perceive any natural means by which it can 
be produced, take refuse in the regions of prophecy, and ex- 
pect a miraculous reign of saints in the Millennium. How 
much more profitable would it be to study the philosophy of 
man's nature, which is obviously the work of God, and en- 
deavor to introduce morality and happiness by the means 
appointed by Him in creation ! Supernatural agency has 
long since ceased to interfere with human affairs ; and when- 
ever it shall operate again, we may presume that it will be 
neither assisted nor retarded by human opinions and specu- 
lations. 

We need only attend to the scenes daily presenting them- 
selves in society, to obtain an irresistable convictjon that 
many evil consequences result from the want of a true theo- 
ry of human nature, and its relations. Every preceptor in 
schools — every professor in colleges — every author, editor, 
and pamphleteer — ever}* member of Parliament, councillor, 
and judge — has a set of notions of his own, which in his 
mind, holds the place of a system of the philosophy of man ; 
and although he may not have methodized his ideas, or even 



3~8 conclusion-. 

acknowledged them to himself as a theory, yet they constitute 
a standard to him by which he practically judges of all ques- 
tions in morals, politics, and religion • he advocates whatever 
views coincide with them, and condemns all that differ from 
them, with as unhesitating a dogmatism as the most pertina- 
cious theorist on earth. Each also despises the notions of 
his fellows, in so far as they differ from his own. In short, 
the human faculties too generally operate simply as instincts, 
exhibiting all the connection and uncertainty of mere feeling, 
unenlightened by perception of their own nature and objects. 
Hence public measures in general, whether relating to edu- 
cation, religion, trade, manufactures, the poor, criminal law, 
or any other subject linked with the dearest interests of socie- 
ty, instead of being treated as branches of one general system 
of economy, and adjusted on scientific principles each in har- 
mony with all the rest, are supported or opposed on narrow 
and empirical grounds, and often call forth displays of igno- 
rance, prejudice, selfishness, intolerance and bigotry, that 
greatly obstruct the progress of improvement. Indeed, any 
important approach to unanimity, even among sensible and 
virtuous men, will be impossible, so long as no standard of 
mental philosophy is admitted to guide individual feelings 
and perceptions. But the state of things now described could 
not exist, if education embraced a true system of human 
nature and its relations. 

If, then, the doctrine of the natural laws here expounded 
be true, it will, when matured, supply the deficiencies now 
pointed out. 

But here another question naturally presents itself — How 
are the views explained in this work, supposing them to con- 
tain some portion of truth, to be rendered practical ] Sound 
views of human nature and of the divine government come 
home to the feelings and understandings of men ; they per- 
ceive them to possess a substantive existence and reality ; 
which rivet attention and command respect. If the doctrine 
unfolded in the present treatise be in any degree true, it is 
destined to operate proportionally on the character of clerical 
instruction. Individuals whose minds have embraced the 
views which it contains, inform me that many sermons ap- 
pear to them inconsistent in their different propositions, at 
variance with sound views of human nature, and so vague as 
to have little relation to practical life and conduct. They 
partake of the abstractedness t»i the scholastic philosophy 



CONCLUSION. 329 

The first divine of comprehensive intellect and powerful mora! 
feelings who shall take coinage and introduce the natural 
laws into his discourses, and teach the people the works and 
institutions of the Creator, will reap a great reward in useful- 
ness and pleasure. If this course shall as heretofore, he ne- 
glected, the people, who are daily adding to their knowledge 
of philosophy and practical science, will in a few years look 
down with disrespect on their clerical guides, and probably 
force them, by " pressure from without," to remodel the entirs 
system of pulpit-instruction. 

The institutions and manners of society indicate the state 
of mind of the influential classes at the time when they pre- 
vail. The trial and burning of old women as witches, point 
out clearly the predominance of Destructiveness and Wonder 
over intellect and benevolence, in those who were guilty of 
such cruel absurdities. The practices of wager of battle, and 
ordeal by fire and water, indicate great activity of Combative- 
ness, Destructiveness, and Veneration, in those who permitted 
them, combined with lamentable ignorance of the natural 
constitution of the world. In like manner, the enormous 
sums willingly expended in war, and the small sums grudg- 
ingly paid for public improvements — the intense energy dis- 
played in the pursuit of wealth — and the general apathy 
evinced in the search after knowledge and virtue — unequivo- 
cally proclaim activity of Combativeness, Destructiveness, Ac- 
quisitiveness, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation, with 
comparatively moderate vivacity of Benevolence, in the pres- 
ent generation. Before, therefore, the practices of mankind 
can be altered, the state of their minds must be changed. No 
error can be more gross than that of establishing institutions 
greatly in advance of the mental condition of the people. 
The rational method is, first to instruct the intellect, then to 
interest the sentiments, and, last of all, to form arrangements 
in harmony with these and resting on them as their basis. 

The views developed in the preceeding chapters, if founded 
in nature, may be expected to lead, ultimately, to considera- 
ble changes in many of the customs and pursuits of society ; 
but to accomplish this effect, the principles themselves must 
first be ascertained to be true, and then they must be sedu- 
lously taught. It appears to me that a long series of years 
will be necessary to bring even civilized nations into a condi- 
tion to obey systematically the natural laws. 

The present work may be regarded as, in one sense, an in- 
troduction to an essay on education. If the views unfolded 
28* 



830 CONCLUSION. 

in it be in general sound, it will follow that education has 
scarcely yet commenced. If the Creator has bestowed on 
the body, on the mind, and on external nature, determinate 
constitutions, and has arranged them so as to act on each 
other, and to produce happiness or misery to man, according 
to certain definite principles — and if this action goes on in- 
variably, inflexibly, and irresistibly, whether men attend to it 
or not — it is obvious that the very basis of useful knowledge 
must consist in an acquaintance with these natural arrange- 
ments, and that education will be valuable in the exact degree 
in which it communicates such information, and trains the 
faculties to act upon it. Reading, writing, and accounts, 
which make up the instruction enjoyed by the lower orders, 
are merely means of acquiring knowledge, but do no consti- 
tute it. Greek, Latin, and mathematics, which are added in 
the education of the middle and upper classes, are still only 
means of obtaining information : so that, with the exception 
of the few who pursue physical science, society dedicates very 
little attention to the study of the natural laws. In following 
out the views now discussed, therefore, each individual, ac- 
cording as he becomes acquainted with the natural laws, 
ought to obey them, and to communicate his experience of 
their operations to others; avoiding at the same time, all at- 
tempts at subverting, by violence, established institutions, or 
outraging public sentiment by intemperate discussions. The 
doctrine before unfolded, if true, authorises us to predicate 
that the most successful method of ameliorating the condition 
of mankind will be that which appeals most directly to their 
moral sentiments and intellect ; and I may add from expe- 
rience and observation, that, in proportion as any individual 
becomes acquainted with the real constitution of the human 
mind, will his conviction of the efficacy of this method in- 
crease. 

The next step ought to be to teach those laws to the 
young. Their minds, not being occupied by prejudice, will 
recognise them as congenial to their own constitution ; the 
first generation that shall embrace them from infancy will 
proceed to modify the institutions of society into accordance 
with their dictates ; and in the course of ages, they may at 
length be acknowledged as practically useful. A perception 
of the importance of the natural laws will lead to their obser- 
vance, and this will be attended with an improved develope- 
ment of brain, tV.ereby increasing the desire and capacity far 



CONCLUSION. 331 

obedience. All true theories have ultimately been adopted 
and influenced practice ; and I see no reason to fear that the 
present, if true, will prove an exception. The failure of all 
previous systems is the natural consequence of their being un- 
founded ; if this resemble them, it will deserve, and assuredly 
will meet, a similar fate. 

Finally, if it be true that the natural laws must be obeyed 
as a preliminary condition to happiness in this world, and if 
virtue and happiness be inseparably allied, the religious in- 
tructors of mankind may probably discover in the general 
and prevalent ignorance of these laws, one reason of the 
limited success which has hitherto attended their efforts to 
improve the condition of mankind ; and they may perhaps 
perceive it to be not inconsistent with their sacred office, to 
instruct men in the natural institutions of the Creator, in ad- 
dition to his revealed will, and to recommend obedience to 
both. They exercise so vast an influence over the best mem- 
bers of society, that their countenance may hasten, or their 
opposition retard, by a century, the general adoption of the 
natural laws as sound guides of human conduct. 

If the excessive toil of the manufacturer be inconsistent 
with that elevation of the moral and intellectual faculties of 
man which is commanded by religion, and if the moral and 
physical welfare of mankind be not at variance with each 
other (which they cannot be), the institutions of society, out 
of which the necessity for that labor arises, must, philosophi- 
cally speaking, be pernicious to the interests of the state as a 
political body, and to the temporal welfare of the individuals 
who compose it ; and whenever we shall be in possession of a 
correct knowledge of the elements of human nature, and the 
principles on which God has constituted the world, the philo- 
sophical evidence that these practices are detrimental to our 
temporal welfare, will be as clear as that of their inconsist- 
ency with our religious duties. Until, however, divines shall 
become acquainted with this relation between philosophy and 
religion, they will not possess adequate means of rendering 
their precepts practical in this world ; they will not cany the 
intellectual perceptions of their hearers fully along with them; 
they will be incapable of controlling the force of the animal 
propensities ; and they will never lead society to the fulfil- 
ment of its highest destinies. At present, the animal propen- 
sities are fortified in the strong entrenchments of social insti- 
tutions : Acquisitive less, for exam Me, is protected and fostered 



33*5 conclusion. 

oy our arrangements for accumulating wealth ; a wordty 
spirit, by our constant struggle to obtain the means of sub- 
sistence ; pride and vanity, by our artificial distinctions of 
rank and fashion ; and Combativeness and Destructivenese 
by our warlike professions. The divine assails the vices and 
inordinate passions of mankind by the denunciations of the 
Gospel ; but as long as society shall be animated by different 
principles, and mantain in vigor institutions whose spirit is 
diametrically opposite to its doctrines, so long will it be dim- 
cult for him to effect the realization of his precepts in prac- 
tice. Yet it appears to me, that, by teaching mankind the 
philosophy of their own nature and of the world in which 
they live — by proving to them the coincidence between the 
dictates of this philosophy and Christian morality, and the 
inconsistency of their own institutions with both — they may be 
induced to modify the latter, and to entrench the moral pow- 
ers ; and then the triumph of virtue and religion will be more 
complete. Those who advocate the exclusive importance of 
spiritual religion for the improvement of mankind, appear to 
me to err in overlooking too much the necessity for comply- 
ing with the natural conditions on which all improvement 
depends ; and I anticipate, that when schools and colleges 
shall expound the various branches of philosophy as portions 
of the institutions of the Creator — when the pulpit shall deal 
with the same principles, show their practical application to 
man's duties and enjoyments, and add the sanctions of reli- 
gion to enforce the observance of the natural laws — and when 
the busy scenes of life shall be so arranged as to become a 
field for the practice at once of our philosophy and of ou? 
religion — 'then will man assume his station as a rational 
being, and Christianity achieve her triumph. 



APPPENDIX. 



No. I. — Natural Laws. 
Text, p. 33. 

It is mentioned in the text that many philosophers have 
treated of the Laws of Nature. The following ai e examples : — • 

Montesquieu introduces his spirit of Laws with the fol- 
lowing observations : — " Laws, in their most general significa- 
tion, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of 
things. In this sense, all beings have their laws ; the Deity 
has his laws ; the material world its laws ; the intelligences 
superior to man have their laws ; the beasts their laws ; man 
his laws. 

M Those who assert that a blind fatality produced the vari- 
ous effects we behold in this world, are guilty of a very great 
absurdity ; for can any thing be more absurd than to pretend 
that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings'? 

" There is, then, a primitive reason ; and laws are the rela- 
tions which subsist between it and different beings, and the 
relations of these beings among themselves. 

" God is related to the universe as creator and preserver ; 
the laws by which he has created all things are those by 
which he preserves them. He acts according to these rules, 
because he knows them ; he knows them because he has 
made them ; and he made them because they are relative to 
his wisdom and power, &c. 

" Man, as a 'physical being, is like all other bodies, go- 
verned by invariable laws. — Spirit of Laws, b. i. c. i. 

Justice Blackstone observes, that " Law, in its most general 
and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is 
applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether ani- 
mate or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the 
laws of motion, or of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as 
well as the laws of nature and of nations." — " Thus, when 
the Supreme Being formed the universe, and created matter 
out of nothing, he impressed certain principles upon that 
matter, from which it can never depart, and without which 
it would cease to be. When he put that matter into motion, 
he established certain laws of motion, to which all moveable 
bodies must conform." — " If we farther advance from mere 

333 



334 APPENDIX. 

inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, we shall find 
them stlll goverxed by laws-, more numerous, indeed, 
but equally fixed and invariable. The whole progress of 
plants, from the seed to the root, and from thence to the seed 
again — the method of animal nutrition, digestion, secretion, 
and all other branches of vital economy — are not left to chance,, 
or the will of the creator itself, but are performed in a won- 
drous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid 
down by the great Creator, This, then, is the general signifi- 
cation of law, a rule of action dictated by some superior being ; 
and, in those creatures that have neither power to think, nor 
to will, such laws must be invariably obeyed, so long as the 
creature itself subsists ; for its existence depends on that obe- 
dience." — Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of Eng- 
land, vol. i. sect. 2. 

"The word law," says Mr. Erskine, "is frequently made 
use of, both by divines and philosophers, in a large accepta- 
tion, to express the settled method of God's providence, by 
which he preserves the order of the material world in such 
a manner, that nothing in it may deviate from that uniform 
course which he has appointed for it. And as brute matter 
is merel}' passive, without the least degree of choice upon its 
part, these laws are inviolably observed in the material 
creation, every part of which continues to act, immutably, 
according to the rules that were frorn the beginning pre- 
scribed to it by infinite wisdom. Thus philosophers have 
given the appellation of law to that motion which incessantly 
pervades and agitates the universe, and is ever changing the 
form and substance of things ; dissolving some, and raising 
others, as from their ashes, to fill up the void; yet so, that 
amidst all the fluctuations by which particular things are 
affected, the universe is still preserved without diminution. 
Thus also they speak of the lavjs of fluids, of gravitation, 
&c, and the word is used, in this sense, in several passages 
of the sacred writings ; in the book of Job, and in Proverbs 
iii. 2i>, where God is said to have given his law to the seas 
that they should not pass his commandment." — Erskine's 
Institutes of the Law of Scotland, book i. tit. i. sect. 1. 

Cowper, in his Table Talk, after stating that vice disposes 

he mind to submit to the usurped command of tyranny ex* 

claims — 

** A dire effect, by one of Nature's Laws, 
Unchangeably connected with its cause." 



appendix. 335 

Discussions about the Laws of Nature, rather than inqui 
lies into them, were common in France at the time of th« 
Revolution ; and, having become associated, in imagination, 
with the crimes and horrors of that period, they continue U 
be regarded, by some individuals, as inconsistent with religion 
and morality. A conincidence between the views maintained 
in the preceding pages, and a passage in Volney, has been 
pointed out to me as an objection to the whole doctrine 
Volney's words aie the following: — "It is a law of nature 
hat water flows from an upper to a lower situation ; that i 
seeks its level; that it is heavier than air; that all bodies 
tend towards the earth ; that flame rises towards the sky ; 
that it destroys the organization of vegetables and animals ; 
that air is essential to the life of certain animals ; that, in 
certain cases, water suffocates and kills them; that certain 
juices of plants, and certain minerals, attack their organs, and 
destroy their life ; and the same of a variety of facts. 

Now, since these facts, and many similar ones, are con- 
stant, regular, and immutable, they become so many real 
commands, to which man is bound to conform, under the 
express penalty of punishment attached to their infraction, or 
well-being connected with their observance. So that if a 
man were to pretend to see clearly in the dark, or is regard- 
less of the progress of the seasons, or the action of the ele- 
ments ; if he pretends to exist under water without drowning, 
to handle fire without burning himself, to deprive himself of 
air without suffocating, or to drink poison without destroying 
himself; he receives, for each infraction of the law of nature, 
a corporal punishment proportioned to his transgression* 
If, on the contrary, he observes these laws, and founds his 
practice on the precise and regular relation which they bear 
to him, he preserves his existence, and renders it as happy aa 
it is capable of being rendered : and since all these laws 
considered in relation to the human species, have in view onl) 
one common end, that of their preservation and their happi- 
ness, it has been agreed to assemble together the different 
ideas, and express them by a single word, and call them col- 
lectively by the name of the Law of Nature." — Volney's 
Law of Nature, 3d edit, p. 21-24. 

I feel no embarrassment on account of this coincidence 
but remark, first, That various authors, quoted in the text and 
in this note, advocated the importance of the laws of nature, 
long before the French Revolution was heard of; secondly 



336 APPENDIX. 

That the existence of the laws of nature is as obvious to thfl 
understanding, as the existence of the external world, and of 
the human body itself, to the senses ; thirdly, That these 
laws, being inherent in creation, must have proceeded from 
the Deity ; fourthly, That if the Deity is powerful, just, and 
oenevolent, they must harmonize with the constitution of man ; 
and, lastly, That if the laws of nature have been instituted 
by the Deity, and been framed in wise, benevolent, and just 
relationship to the human constitution, they must at all times 
form the highest and most important subjects of human 
investigation, and remain altogether unaffected by the errors, 
follies, and crimes of those who have endeavored to expound 
them : just as religion continues holy, venerable, and uncon- 
taminated, notwithstanding the hypocrisy, wickedness, and 
inconsistency of individuals professing themselves her inter- 
preters and friends. 

That the views of the natural laws themselves, advocated 
in this work, are diametrically opposite to the practical con- 
duct of the French revolutionary ruffians, requires no demon- 
stration. My fundamental principle is, that man can enjoy 
happiness on earth only by preserving his habitual conduct 
under the direction of the moral sentiments and intellect, and 
that this is the law of his nature. No doctrine can be more 
opposed than this to fraud, robbery, blasphemy, and murder. 

It may be urged, that all past speculations about the laws 
of nature have proved more imposing than useful; and that, 
while the laws themselves afford materials for elevated decla- 
mation, they form no secure guides even to the learned, and 
much less to the illiterate, in practical conduct. In answer, 
I would respectfully repeat what has frequently been urged in 
the text, that before we can discover the laws of nature ap- 
plicable to man, we must know, first, the constitution of man 
himself; secondly, the constitution of external nature ; and, 
thirdly, we must compare the two. But, until the discovery 
of Phrenology, the mental constitution of man was a matter 
of vague conjecture and endless debate ; and the connexion 
between his mental powers and his organized system was in- 
volved in the deepest obscurity. The brain, the most im- 
portant organ of the body, had no ascertained functions. 
Before the introduction of this science, therefore, men were 
rather impressed with the unspeakable importance of the 
knowledge of the laws of nature, than extensively acquainted 
with those laws themselves : and even the knowledge of the 



APrEN/ux. 337 

external world actual!) possessed, could not, in many in- 
stances, be rendered available, on account of its relationship 
to the qualities of man being unascertained, and unascer- 
tamable so long as these qualities themselves were unknown. 

The adaptation of the constitution of man and animals to 
the circumstances in which they are placed, has been noticed 
by former writers. 

Lord Kames observes, that "The wisdom of Providence is 
in no instance more ^conspicuous than in adjusting the consti- 
tution of man to hi* external circumstances." — {Sketches, b. L 
sk. 7.) ; and again, " The hand of God is nowhere more 
visible than in the nn-e adjustment of our internal frame to 
our situation in this wwld." — B. iii. sk. 2. chap. i. sect. i. 

Mr. Stewart says : * To examine the economy of nature in 
the phenomena of the lower animals, and to compare theii 
instincts with the physical circumstances of their external 
situation, forms one of the finest speculations of Natural 
His*^i y ; and yet it is a speculation to which the attention 
of the natural historian has seldom been directed. Not only 
BufTon, but Ray and Derham, have passed it over slightly ; 
nor, indeed, do I know of any one who has made it the ob- 
ject of a particular consideration but Lord Kames, in a short 
Appendix to one . of his Sketches." — Elements of the Phi- 
losophy of tht Human Mind, vol. iii. p. 368. 

Mr. Stewart also uses the following words : — " Numberless 
examples show that Nature Jhas done no more for man than 
was necessary for his preservation, leaving him to make 
many acquisitions for himself, which she has imparted im- 
mediately to the brutes. 

"My own idea is, as I have said on a different occasion, 
that both instinct and experience are here concerned, and 
that the share which belongs to each in producing the result, 
can be ascertained by an appeal to facts alone." — Vol. hi. p. 
338. 

The following is extracted from the Quarterly Review, 
vol. xxxi. p. 51: — "Each must coincide in the desire of the 
Stoic to harmonize his conduct with the physical and moral 
order of the universe. When to the knowledge of each the 
Christian adds a deeper insight into the government of the 
Almighty, and learns that to act in concert with the system 
jf the universe is to promo. e his own eternal as well as his 
temporal happiness, his inducements are sti'l stronger to em 
ploy the powers of self-government with which he has been 
22 29 



338 APPENDIX. MUSCULAR LABOR. 

gifted, in conforming his feelings and actions to the plan of 
the great Architect." 

No. II. — Muscular Labor. 

Text, p. 53. 

So little o ight the necessity for bodily exertion to be re- 
garded as a curse, that in reality (as Dr. Thomas Browne has 
eloquently illustrated in his 66th lecture) there is no human 
desire more powerful and universal than the desire of action, 
and none the denial of whose gratification is productive of 
greater uneasiness. 

"To be happy," says Dr. B., "It is necessary that we be 
occupied ; and, without our thinking of the happiness which 
results from it, nature has given us a constant desire of occu- 
pation. We must exert our limbs, or we must exert our 
thought; and when we exert neither, we feel that languor of 
which we did not think before, but which, when it is felt, 
convinces us how admirably our desire of action is adapted 
for the prevention of this very evil, of which we had not 
thought ; as our appetites of hunger and thirst are given to 
us for the preservation of health, of which we think as little, 
during the indulgence of our appetites, as we think during 
our occupation, of the languor which would overwhelm us 
if wholly unoccupied. How wretched would be the boy, if 
he were to be forced to lie even on the softest couch, during 
a whole day, while he heard, at intervals, the gay voices of 
his playmates without, and could distinguish, by these very 
sounds, the particular pastimes in which they were engaged ! 
How wretched, in these circumstances, is man himself; and 
what fretfulness do we perceive even on brows of more de- 
liberate thought — on brows too, perhaps, that, in other cir- 
cumstances, are seldom overcast — if a few successive days of 
tvet and boisterous weather have rendered all escape into the 
open air, and the exercises which this escape would afford, 
impossible ! 

" Without the knowledge of the pleasure that is thus felt 
in mere exertion, it would not be easy for us to look with 
satisfaction on the scene of human toil around us — which 
assumes instantly a different aspect when we consider this 
happy principle of our mental constitution. Though we are 
apt to think of those who are laboring for others, as if they 
were not laboring for themselves also — and though unques- 
tionably, *rom our natural love of freedom, any task which v 



APPENDIX. MUSCULAR LABOR. 339 

imposed cannot be as agreeable as an occupation sponta- 
neously chosen — we yet must not think that the labor itself ia 
necessarily an evil, from which it would be happiness for man 
to be freed. Nature has not dealt so hardly with the great 
multitude ; in comparison with whom the smaller number , 
for whose accommodation she seems to have formed a more 
sumptuous provision, are truly insignificant. .... .How differ- 
ent would the busy scene of the world appear, if we could 
conceive that no pleasure attended the occupations to which 
so great a majority of our race would then seem to be con- 
demned, almost like slaves that are fettered to the very instru- 
ments of their daily task ! How different from that scene, in 
which, though we perceive many laboring and a few at rest, 
we perceive in the laborer a pleasure of occupation, which 
those who rest would often be happy to purchase from him, 
and which they do sometimes endeavor to purchase, by the 
same means by which he has acquired it; by exercises as 
violent and unremitted as his, and which have the distinction 
only of being of less advantage to the world than those toils 
by which he at once promotes his own happiness and con- 
tributes to the accommodation of others ! It is pleasing thus 
to perceive a source of enjoyment in the very circumstance 
which might seem most hostile to happiness ; to perceive in 
the labor itself, of which the necessity is imposed en man, a 
consolation for the loss of that very freedom which it con- 
strains." — Lectures on the Philosophy of the Human Mind, 
vol. iii. p. 409-412. 

No. III. — Progress of Phrenology. 

Text, p. 104. 

On its first introduction into Britain, in 1815, Phrenology 
was received by the press and the public with an unanimous- 
shout of derision. The Edinburgh Review took the leading 
part in the work of abuse, boldly denouncing it as " trash," 
"despicable trumpery," "a collection of mere absurdities, 
without truth, connexion, or consistency," and u a piece of 
thorough quackery from beginning to end." To Phrenolo- 
gy, the following sentence, applied by Dr. Chalmers to the 
philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, is equally applicable : — 
"Authority scowled upon it, and taste was disgusted by it, 
and fashion was ashamed of it, and all the beauteous specu- 
lation of former days was cruelly broken up by this new 
announcement of the better philosophy, and scattered like 



340 APPENDIX. PROGRESS OF PHRENOLOGI. 

the fragments of an aerial vision, over which the past 
generations of the world had been slumbering their profound 
and their pleasing reverie. ,, — (Astronom Discourses, ii. 
55.) For a few years, the progress of Phrenology was 
completely stopped ; but Dr. Spurzheim having published a 
decisive reply to the reviewer, and in his lectures convinced 
many that the science had been most unfairly dealt with, the 
study was eagerly taken up in Edinburgh and other parts of 
Britain. The Phrenological Society, projected by the Rev. 
David Welsh, now Professor of Church History in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, was instituted in that city on the 22d 
of February 1820; and, in 1823, several of its members com- 
menced the publication of a quarterly periodical, " The Phre- 
nological Journal and Miscellany ," which has now (July 1835) 
extended to forty-four numbers, or nearly nine octavo volumes. 
In 1824, the Society printed a volume of Transactions. The 
effect of these and other phrenological publications — and of 
the lectures of various phrenologists in different parts of the 
kingdom, particularly those of Dr. Spurzheim himself — has 
been to diffuse the science far more rapidly than even its 
most sanguine advocates ventured fifteen years ago to antici- 
pate. In France, a Phrenological Journal has for several 
years been published, under the superintendence of the Phre- 
nological Society of Paris ; and, in October 1833, there ap- 
peard at Boston, U. S., the first number of a periodical entitled 
"Annals of Phrenology," conducted by members of the Bos- 
ton Phrenological Society, and a volume of which is now 
complete. In Britain, Phrenology has been from time to time 
attacked by various writers ; but the effect has always been a 
decided acceleration of its progress — the defences of phrenolo- 
gists having apparently been considered triumphant by the 
public. 

The following is a list of places in which, so far as I am 
aware, Phrenological Societies have been formed : — 

Scotland.— 1820; Edinburgh.— 1826 ; Glasgow, Dundee, 
Kilmarnock.— 1828; Dunfermline. — 1833; Greenock. — 1834 
Alyth, Stirling. 

England.— 1824; London, Wakefield, Exeter— 1827 
Hull.— 1829 ; Liverpool.— 1830 ; Manchester.— 1832; Porto 
mouth. — 1834; Warwick. 

Ireland. — 1826 ; Belfast. — 1829; Dublin. 

France. — 1831 ; Paris. 

India. — 1825; Calcutta. 



APPENDIX PROGRESS OF PUIIEN ALOG T. 34! 

Unit™ State*. — 1S24; Philadelphia. — 1826 ; Washing* 
ton. — 1832; Boston.— 1834 ; Hingham, Nantucket, Bruns- 
wick, Andover, Amherst, Hanover, Reading, Leicester, Wor- 
cester, Providence, Hartford, Oneida. 

Other Phrenological Societies, of which I have not heani, 
nave probably been instituted elsewhere ; and it is understood 
that some of those mentioned in the foregoing list are at pre- 
sent in a dormant condition. 

Among the members of the medical profession, Phrenology 
nas many talented defenders and admirers. Professor Elliot- 
son of London declares that " Gall has the immortal honor 
of having discovered particular parts of the brain to be the 
seat of different faculties, sentiments, and propensities. — • 
(Transl of BlumenbacJfs Physiology, 4th edit. p. 204.) Mr. 
Abernethy says, " I readily acknowledge my inability to offer 
any rational objections to Gaul and Spurzheim's system of 
Phrenology, as affording a satisfactory explanation of the 
motives of human actions. — (Reflections on Gaul and Spurz- 
heinia System, tyc. p, 48.) — Dr. Barlow, Physician to the Bath 
United Hospital and Infirmary, alludes to Phrenology as a 
science in which he " has no hesitation to avow his firm 
belief; and which, justly estimated, has more power of con 
tributing to the welfare and happiness of mankind, than any 
other with which we are acquainted.'' (Cyclop, of Pract. 
Med. art. Education, Physical.) Dr. Conolly, lately one of 
the Medical Professors in the London University, and now 
President of the Phrenological Society of Warwick, says, 
"I can see nothing which merits the praise of being philo- 
sophical in the real or affected contempt professed by so many 
anatomists and physiologists," for the science of Phrenology. 
— On the Indications of Insanity, p. 135.) Dr. Mackintosh 
says, " Although I must confess that I have had neither time 
nor opportunity to examine the system of those distinguished 
anatomists and physiologists, Gall and Spurzheim, with that 
care and attention which the importance of the subject de- 
mands, and which might enable me to give a decided opinion 
respecting the truth of all its parts, yet experience and obser- 
vation oblige me to state, that much of their doctrines appears 
to be true, and that science owes a great deal to the labors of 
the gentlemen who have been engaged in phrenological in- 
quiry." — Principles of Pathology, 3d edit. ii. 4.) "The 
science, says Mr. Macnish, " is entirely one of observation ; by 
that it must stand or fall, and by that alone ought it to be 
29* 



542 APPEXDIX PROGRESS OF PHRENOLOGY, 

tested. The Phrenological system appears to me the only 
one capable of affording a rational and easy explanation of 
the phenomena of mind. It is impossible to account foe 
dreaming, idiocy, spectral illusions, monomania, and partia] 
genius, in any other way. For these reasons, and for the 
much stronger one, that having studied the science for severa, 
years with a mind rather hostile than otherwise to its doc 
trines, and found that nature invariably vindicated their truth, 
I could come to no other conclusion than that of adopting 
them as a matter of belief, and employing them for the ex 
planation of phenomena which they alone seem calculated tc 
elucidate satisfactorily. The system of Gaul is gaining ground 
rapidly among scientific men, both in Europe and America, 
Some of the ablest physiologists in both quarters of the globt 
have admitted its accordance with nature ; and, at this mo- 
ment, it boasts a greater number of proselytes than at any 
previous period of its career. The prejudices still existing 
against it result from ignorance of its real character. As 
people get better acquainted with the science, and the formi- 
dable evidence by which it is supported, they will think dif- 
ferently." — {Philosophy of Sleep, 2d edition, preface.) Similar 
passages might be quoted from other esteemed medical writers ; 
but it is sufficient to add, that Andral, one of the highest 
medical authorities in Europe, was recently President of the 
Phrenological Society of Paris ; that the celebrated Broussais 
expounds and defends the science in his lectures; that the 
Medico-Chirurgical Review, which is unquestionably at the 
head of the British medical periodicals, has for many years 
adopted Phrenology as founded in nature; and that a con- 
viction of the truth and importance of the science is daily 
forcing -itself upon many, who, before making themselves 
acquainted with it, were among its bitter opponents. The 
simplicity and practical character of the phrenological phi- 
losophy have induced not a few to doubt the possibility of its 
being founded on physiological error. If, as has been well 
remarked, the truth and beauty of Gall and Spurzheim's phi- 
losophical opinions be admitted, one of two conclusions is 
inevitable : We must either grant the soundness of the organ- 
ology from which those opinions sprung, or ascribe to the 
individuals who first taught them an amount of knowledge 
and talent which they would have blushed ti hear attributed 
to them, and their possession of which is far more incredibU 
than the entire body of phrenological science. 



APPENDIX. 843 

No. IV. — Organic Laws. 
Text, p. 155. 

On the subject of the suffering of women in child-bed, the 
following authorities may be referred to : — 

" One thing," says Mr. Allison, is very remarkable, and 
occurs in most cases of concealment and child-murder, viz, 
the strength and capability for exertion evinced by women in 
the inferior ranks shortly after childbirth — appearances so 
totally different from those exhibited in the higher orders, 
that, to persons acquainted only with cases among the latter, 
they would appear incredible. In the case just mentioned 
(that of Catharine Butler or Anderson, at Aberdeen, in spring 
18*29, the mother, two or three days after her delivery, walked 
from Inverury to Huntly, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in 
a single day, with h a r child on her back. Similar occurrences 
daily are proved in cases of this description. It is not un- 
usual to find women engaged in reaping retire to a little dis- 
tance, effect their delivery by themselves, return to their 
fellow-laborers, and go on with their work during the remain- 
der of the day, without any other change of appearance but 
looking a little paler and thinner. Such a fact occurred in 
the case of Jean Smith, Ayr, spring 1824. Again, in the 
case of Ann Macdougall, Aberdeen, spring 1823, it appeared 
that the pannel, who was sleeping in bed with two other 
servants, rose, was delivered, and returned to bed, without 
any of them being conscious of what bad occurred. Instances 
have even occurred in which women have walked six and 
eight miles on the very day of their delivery, without any 
sensible inconvenience. Many respectal le medical practi- 
tioners, judging from what they have observed among the 
higher ranks, would pronounce such facts impossible : but 
they occur so frequently among the laboring classes as to 
form a point worthy of knowledge in criminal jurisprudence ; 
and to render perfectly credible what is said of the female 
American Indians, that they fall behind for a little* on their 
journeys through the forests, deliver themselves, and shortly 
make up to their husbands, and continue their journey with 
their offspring on their back." — Alison's Principles of the 
Criminal Law of Scotland, pp. 161, 162. 

Mr. Lawrence observes, that " the very easy labors of Ne- 
gresses, native Americans, and other women in the savage 
state, have been often notices by travellers. This point is 



314 HEREDITARY DESCENT OF NATIONAL PECULIARITIES. 

not explicable by any prerogative of physical formation ; for 
the pelvis is rather smaller in these dark-colored races than in 
the European and other white people. Simple diet, constant 
and laborious exertion, give to these children of nature a 
hardiness of constitution, and exempt them from most of the 
ills which afflict the indolent and luxurious females of civil- 
ized societies. In the latter, however, the hard-working wo- 
men of the lower classes in the country often suffer as little 
from childbirth as those of any other race. Analogous .dif- 
ferences, from the like causes, may be seen in the animal 
kingdom. Cows kept in towns, and other animals deprived 
of their healthful exercise, and accustomed to unnatural food 
and habits, often have difficult labors, and suffer much in 
parturition." — Lawrence's Lectures on Physiobgy, Zoology, 
and the Natural History of Man, 1822. Vol. ii. p. 190. 

Among the Araucanian Indians of South America, "a mo- 
ther, immediately on her delivery, takes her child, and going 
down to the nearest stream of water, washes herself and it, 
and returns to the usual labors of her station." — Stevenson's 
Twenty Year's Residence in South America. Vol. i. p. 9. 

No. V. — Hereditary Descent of National 

Peculiarities. 

Text, p. 156. 

National features descend unchanged through many cen- 
turies, as is shown by Dr. W. C. Edwards, in his work on 
"The Physiological Characters of Races of Mankind con- 
sidered in their relations to History," published at Paris in 
1829. An excellent abstract of this work, by Dr. William 
Gregory, will be found in the Phrenological Journal, vol. ix. 
p. 97. Dr. Edwards has adduced as an example the Jews. 
" In the first place, Jews in all countries resemble each other, 
and differ from the people among whom they live. Secondly, 
at distant periods, they had the same external characters. 
In the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci, this painter, who 
was an excellent naturalist and close observer, has painted 
faces which might be portraits of living Jews. This was 300 
years ago ; but we have evidence, that 3000 years ago the 
Jews had the same characters. 

" In the copy of the paintings adorning the tomb of an 
Egyptian king, exhibited in London about ten years ago, 
there are representations of four different races in proces- 
sion * — 1st, The natives, very numerous, of a dark-brown tint, 



APPENDIX HEBEDITAHI COMPLEXION,, 



345 



but without the woolly hair of the Negro ; 2d, Negroes, with 
the black skin, thick lips, and woolly hair of that race ; 3d, 
Persians ; and, Wi, Jews, distinguished, says Belzoni, by their 
complexion and physiognomy. Dr. Edwards says, ' I had 
seen, on the previous day, Jews in the streets of London; I 
thought that I now saw their portraits.' " 

No. VI. — Hereditary Complexion. 
Text, p. 164. 

Mr. W. B. Stevenson, in his " Narrative of Twenty Years' 
Residence in So ith America," vol. i. p. 286, says that he has 
"always remarked, that in cases where parents are of differ- 
ent castes, the child receives more of the color of the father 
than of the mother." He made extensive observations during 
a long residence in Lima ; a place, he remarks, than which 
there can not be any more favorable for an examination of 
the influence of "the configuration of the human face, or of 
its color, on the intellectual faculties." He gives the following 
Table, showing the mixture of the different castes, under their 

Father. Mother. [Children. Color. 



European 

Creole 

White 

Indian 

White 

Mestiso 

Mestiso 

White 

Negro 
White 
Mulatto 

White 

Quarteron 

White 
Negro 
Indian 
Negro 
Mulattc 

Negro 

Zambo 

Negro 

Chino 
(Negro 



European. 

Creole 

Indian 

White 

Mestiso 

White 

Mestiso 

Negro 

White 

Mulatto 

White 

Quarteron 

White 

Quinteron 
Indian 
Negro 
M ifiatto 
Negro 

Zambo 

Negro 

Chino 

Negro 
Negro 



Creole 

Creole 

Mestiso 

Mestiso 

Creole 

Creole 

Creole 

Mulatto 

Zambo 
Quarteron 
Mulatto 
Quinteron 

Quarteron 

Creole 

Chino 

Chino 

Zambo 

Zambo 

Zambo 

Zambo 
Yambo- 1 

Chino 5 
Zambo- 1 

Chino 5 
Necro 



White. * 
White. 

6-8ths White, 2-8ths Indian— Fair. 
4-Sths White, 4-8ths Indian. 
White — often very fair. 
White— but rather sallow. 
Sallow— often light hair, 
r /.Hths White, l-8th Negro — often 
\ fair. 

f 4-8ths White, 4-8ths Negro— dark 
\ copper. 

6-8ths White, 2-8ths Negro— Fair. 
c5-8ths White, 3-8ths Negro— Taw- 

t ny. 

CT-8ths White, l-8th Negro— verj 
I fair 

C6-8ths White, 2-8ths Negro— Taw 
\ »y. 

White — light eyes, fair hair. 
4-8ths Negro, 4-8ths Indian. 
2-8ths Negro, 6-8ths Indian 
5-8ths Negro, 3-8ths White. 
4-8ths Negro, 4-8ths White. 
C15-16ths Negro, l-16th White-- 
i Dark. 
7-8ths Negro, l-8th White. 

15-16ths Negro, l-16th Indian. 
7- 8th 8 Negro, 1-Sth Indian. 



346 APPENDIX— IKREDITART TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 

common or distinguishing names. But " this table," says he, 
" >vhich I have endeavored to make as correct as possible from 
personal observaaon, must be considered as general, and not 
including particular cases." 

No. VII. — Hereditary Transmission of Qualities. 
Text, p. 158. 

Fortified by the observations made at the commencement 
of the second section of Chapter V., I venture to cite some 
aditional authorities, and to record some farther facts, ob- 
served by myself or communicated by persons on whose 
accuracy reliance may be placed, in support of the doctrine 
of the transmission of qualities by hereditary descent. 

" The advice which I am now about to give, is indeed no 
other than what hath been given by those who have under- 
taken this argument before me. You will ask me, what is 
that] 'Tis this, that no man keep company with his wife 
for issue sake, but when he is sober — as not having before 
either drunk any wine, or, at least, not to such a quantity as 
to distemper him; for they usually prove winebibbers and 
drunkards whose parents begot them when they were drunk; 
wherefore Diogenes said to a stripling somewhat crack-brained 
and half-witted, Surely, young man, thy father begot thee 
when he was drunk." — Plutarch 1 s Morals, translation pub- 
lished at London, 1718, vol. i. p. 2. 

It is remarked by Burton in his Anatomy of Melandtoly, 
that " if a drunken man gets a child, it will never, likely, 
have a good brain." 

The passion for intoxicating liquors is sometimes hereditary. 
Dr. Gall mentions a Russian family, in which the father and 
grandtather fell victims in early life to their propensity to 
drunkenness. The son, although he foresaw the consequences 
of this pernicious habit, continued to abandon himself to it, 
in spite of every resolution to the contrary ; and the grand- 
son, who was only five years of age when Dr. Gall wrote, 
displayed even then a most decided inclination for spirituous 
liquors. — Sur les Fonctions du Cerveau, i. 410. As these 
facts can hardly be explained by referring to the influence of 
example, it follows that a peculiar state of the organization, 
giving rise to the mental peculiarity, was in this case trans- 
mitted from one generation to another. In point of fact, Dr. 
Caldwell has shown much reason for considering the irre- 
sistible desire for intoxicating liquors as a symptom of cerebral 



i 

APPENDIX HEREDITARY TRANSMISSON Ox' QUALITIES. 3* 

disease, having its special seat probably in the organ of Ali- 
nientivencss. As long as this disease exists, the desire in 
strongly felt, and every appeal to the understanding of the 
repentant and unhappy patient is in vain. " Am I asked," says 
Dr. Caldwell, " how drunkenness then is to be cured, and the 
tormenting propensity which leads to it eradicated ? I an- 
swer, by the same means which are found successful in the 
treatment of other forms of insanity, where the cerebraV 
excitement is preternaturally high. These are seclusion and 
tranquillity, bleeding, puking, purging, cold-water, and low 
diet. In this prescription I am serious-, and if it be oppor- 
tunely adopted and resolutely persevered in, I freely peril my 

reputation on its success If interrogated on the subject, 

the resident physician of the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum will 
6tate that he finds, in the institution he superintends, no diffi- 
culty in curing mania a potu by the treatment here directed." 
Transylvaniu Journal of Medicine for July, August, and 
September, 1^32, p. 332-3. See also Phren. Jour. vol. viii. 
p. 624. Dr. Caldwell admits, however, that it is only recent 
and acute cases which can be speedily cured ; those of long 
standing are much less tractable, and occasionally the disease 
miy be found incurable. He thinks very justly, that nothing 
v ould tend more to diminish the prevalence of habitual 
irunkenness, than to have it deemed and proclaimed a form 
of madness, and dealt with accordingly. Hospitals erected for 
the reception of drunkards, and authority given to confine 
them there, would be among the most important institutions 
that could be established, and would effect an immense 
saving of life, health, property, and reputation. In regard to 
the hereditary transmission of this miserable tendency, Dr. 
Caldwell observes : — Every constitutional quality, whether 
good or bad, may descend, by inheritance, from parent tc child. 
And a long-continued habit of drunkenness becomes as essen- 
tially constitutional, as a predisposition to gout or pulmonary 
consumption. This increases, in a manifold degree, the 
responsibility of parents in relation to temperance. By ha- 
bits of intemperance, they not only degrade and ruin then*- 
selves, but transmit the elements of like degradation and ruin 
to their posterity. This is no visionary conjecture, the fruit 
of a favorite and long-cherished theory. It is a settled belief 
resulting from observation — an inference derived from innu- 
merable facts. In hundreds and thousands of instances, 
parents, having ha</ children born to them while their habits 



848 APPENDIX HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES 

were temperate, have become afterwards intemperate, and had 
other children subsequently born. In such cases, it is a mat- 
ter )f notoriety, that the younger children have become 
addicted to the practice of intoxication much more frequently 
than the elder — in the proportion of five to one. Let me not 
be told that this is owing to the younger children being ne- 
glected, and having corrupt and seducing examples constantly 
before them. The same neglects and profligate examples 
have been extended to all ; yet all have not been equally 
injured by them. The children of the earlier births have 
escaped, while those of the subsequent ones have suffered. 
The reason is plain. The latter children had a deeper animal 
taint than the former." — Transylvania Journal, p. 341, 2. 

The following case is recorded in the Phrenological Jour- 
nal : — " I now proceed to give some facts strongly illustrative 
of the doctrine, that the faculties which predominate in power 
and activity in the parents, when the organic existence of th*» 
child commences, determine its future mental dispositions. 
This is a doctrine to which, from its great practical impor- 
tance, I would beg leave to call your serious attention. It 
was remarked by the celebrated Esquirol, ' that the children 
whose existence dated from the horrors of the first French 
Revolution, turned out to be weak, nervous, and irritable in 
mind, extremely susceptiole of impressions, and liable to be 
thrown by the least extraordinary excitement into absolute 
insanity.' Sometimes, too, family calamities produce serious 
effects upon the offspring. A very intelligent and respectable 
mother, upon hearing this principle expounded, remarked, 
that there was a very wide difference in the intellectual and 
moral development between one of her children and the 
others ; and accounted for this difference by the fact, that, 
during pregnancy, she received intelligence that the crew of 
the ship, on board of which was her son, had mutinied — that 
when the ship arrived in the West Indies, some of the muti- 
neers, and also her son, had been put in irons — and that they 
were all to be sent home for trial. This intelligence acted so 
strongly upon her, that she suffered a temporary alienation 
of judgment. The report turned out to be erroneous, but 
this did no^ avert the consequences of the agitated state of 
the mother's feelings upon the daughter she afterwards gave 
birth to. That daughter is now a woman, but she is and will 
continue to be a being of impulses, incapable of reflection 
and in othe respects greatly inferior to her sisters." 



APPENDIX HEREDITART TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES 3<H 

Shakspearo seems to recognize the law of the transmission 
of temporary mental qualities, so much insisted on in the 
text: — 

« Come on, ye cowards; ye were got in fear, 
Though ye were born in Rome." 

Coriolanus, Act 1. Sc. 6 

A gentleman, who has paid much attention to the rearing 
©f horses, informed me, that the male race-horse, when ex- 
cited, but not exhausted, by running, has been found by ex 
perience to be in the most favorable condition for transmitting 
swiftness and vivacity to his offspring. Another gentleman 
stated, that he was himself present when the pale grey color 
of a male horse was objected to; that the groom thereupon 
presented before the eyes of the male another female from 
the stable, of a very particular but pleasing variety of colors, 
asserting that the latter would determine the complexion of 
the offspring ; and that in point of fact it did so. The ex- 
periment was tried in the case of a second female, and the 
result was so completely the same, that the two young 
horses, in point of color, could scarcely be distinguished 
although their spots were extremely uncommon. The ac- 
count of Laban and the peeled rods laid before the cattle to 
produce spotted calves, is an example of the same kind. 

The subjoined observations are extracted from " Outlines 
of the Verterinary Art, by Delabere Blaine," 3d edition, 
London, 1826, p. 327: — "That the organization of the mare, 
her qualities, and even her diseases, are imprinted on her 
offspring, is hardly to be wondered at ; but how are we to 
account for the effects which even her imagination has over 
the young within] — and that such is the case, we have innu- 
merable proofs. As early as the patriarchal time, the fact 
was known and acted on. These anomalies in the gestation 
of the horse are less frequent than in the more closely do- 
mesticated animals, as dogs ; yet there are ud4 wanting in- 
stances of these mental impressions sinking deeply into the 
mind of the mare also, and being called into recollection and 
action in every future pregnancy. Lord Morton bred from a 
male quagga and a chestnut mare. The mare was afterwards 
bred from by a black Arabian horse ; but still the progeny 
exhibited, in color and mane, a striking resemblance to the 
quagga. D. Giles, Esq. had a sow of the black and white 
kind, which was bred from by a boar of the wild breed, of a 
deep chestnut color : the pigs produced by this intercourse 
30 



850 PENDIX TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY QUALITIES 

were duly mixed, the color of the boar being in some very 
predominant. The sow was afterwards bred from by two o 
Mr. Western's boars, and in both instances chestnut marks 
were prevalent in the latter, which in other instances had 
never presented any appearance of the kind. — Phil. Trans, 
1821. See many other instances detailed in the Canine Pa- 
thology, 3d edition, p. 94." 

The same writer gives some interesting details, to show the 
necessity for attending to the qualities of both parents in the 
breeding of horses. " The general characteristic form of the 
animal," says he, "is arbitrarily settled by nature, but the 
individualities of character in the separate organs is divided 
between the parents in nearly equal proportions.* This is 
exemplified in the breed which arises from the intermixture 
of the blood with the cart breed, where the extreme difference 
in form and character is nicely blended, yet the peculiarities 
of each remain distinguish e.f This proves the great error 
committed by the gener^ '" of farmers and small breeders, 
who, careless about the dai*#, breed from any mare they hap- 
pen to possess or can procure, though it may even be unfitted 
for work by disease or age ; and expect, provided they gain a 
leap from a tolerable stallion, to procure a valuable progeny. 
But it is in vain to hope for good form and useful qualities un- 
der such circumstances ; for it will be generally found that the 
properties of each parent are equally proportioned in the 
progeny — and this fact is so well known to judicious breeders 
that they select both sire and dam with equal care. This 
dependence on the law by which the distribution of form and 
qualities is equally dependent on both parents, leads to the 
correction of defects in particular breeds, by selecting one 
parent eminent for a form or quality for which the other is as 
notoriously defective. Should a mare, otherwise valuable, 

* «*lt is by no means intended here to deny that the external cha- 
racters of some breedg are not principally derived from the male, and 
tf others from the female; but these anomalies, for which we cannot 
account, do not tend to alter the general similitude observed towardi 
both parents. In the multiparous animals, it is often observed thai 
the influence of one parent preponderates in a part of the progeny, 
and of the other in another part of it. Thus it happens that, when a 
pointer and setter breed together, it is not unusual to find part of the 
whelps almost perfect pointers, and the remainder as nearly true 
setters." 

t " The hybrid mule divides in equal proportions the sequine and 
esinine characters; at the same time it must be allowed that the 
hinny, or produce of the stallion and ass, is more allied to the burse 
than the mule, or progeny from the male ass and mare.'* 



APrENIUX HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 351 

present a low heavy forehand beyond even that which is her 
6exual characteristic, by choosing her a male more than 
jsually thin and elevated in his crest, the defect will be reme- 
died ; whereas, if this be not attended to, whatever other 
properties each may possess, a serious defect is propagated 
and increased, and the produce can be of little value. It is 
also by a judicious attention to these circumstances that par- 
ticular breeds are preserved with their original integrity, or 
new vaiieties introduced." — " It is by the choice of such pa- 
rents as have the specified and definite form in the greatest 
perfection that we are enabled in the progeny to perpetuate 
the same, and by future selections to improve it The merits 
and defects of each parent should be previously subjected to 
careful examination; and it is only by a judicious balancing 
of the one against the other that perfect success is to be ex- 
pected. It is thus that our racers have outstripped all com- 
petitors; it is thus that a Russell, a Coke, a Bakewell, 
and an Ellman, have raised our ruminants to their present 
state ; and it is by the same art that a Meynell, a Rivers, or 
a Topham, have produced unrivalled dogs. Our power over 
the animal form and qualities, by the selection of parents, and 
subjecting their progeny to particular nurture, careful domesti- 
cation, restraint and discipline, is truly surprising. The shep- 
herd's dog is in some breeds born with a short tail ; thus the 
very base of the machine, that which of all the parts is the 
least subjected to alteration by any physical or moral agency, 
the bones, even becomes subjected to our caprice. The Here- 
ford ox can be bred to a white face, or a half white face, and 
the length of the horns of others can be insured to an inch. 
The Spitalfields weavers assert that they can ensure almost 
to a certainty in the Marlborough breed of spaniels, which 
flourishes among them, any given quantity of color, length 
of coat and texture of it, and regulate its disposition to curl 
or remain straight. The color of the game-cock is arbitrarily 
imposed by the handler and feeder; and the experienced 
pigeon-fancier can breed to a feather. It should not be lost 
sight of, that qualities, as well mental as personal, are also to 
be cultivated and handed down in the breed. Many qualities 
may be considered as dependent on the organization ; such 
are hardihood, particular excellence in one pace, &c. These, 
it may be expected, a priori, might be perpetuated ; and we 
are not surprised at a son of Eclipse or Matchem having 
speed in his gallop, or *.he produce of a Norfolk trotter excel- 



352 APPE2TDrX HEREDITARY TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES 

ing in that pace ; but it is not equally taken into the account 
that temper, courage, docility, and patience under restraint, 
are equally handed down in hereditary descent as the pecu- 
liarities of form."— P. 321-323. 

Mr. Blaine expresses himself not hostile to in-and-in 
breeding ; in defence of which he adduces several arguments 
and authorities, as well as his own experience, and says he 
" could quote innumerable other authorities" to the same 
effect. " But candor," he adds, " obliges me also to own, that 
there exists a large number of able antagonists to it also. My 
limits only allow me to add, that many practical breeders who 
are averse to breeding in succession from near relationship by 
blood, are favorable to it in a remote degree, which is particu- 
larly the case with some rearers of game fowls, who seek the 
intercourse of a third remove, which they call a ' nick. 1 From 
these conflicting testimonies, the matter will, with many, be 
considered as problematical. With' me, the only arguments 
against it which it appears cannot be satisfactorily answered 
are, that as hereditary diseases in some breeds are con- 
siderable, by this mode of breeding they would be perpetu- 
ated and probably increased ; and likewise, that when breeding 
by relationship is a settled practice, accidental defects are too 
apt to be passed over unobserved." — P. 325. 

Mr. Blaine notices also a very important circumstance in 
relation to hereditary transmission — what is popularly de- 
nominated breeding back : that is to say, the appearance in 
the second or third generation, of qualities of the progenitors, 
not observable in the first generation. " It is observed," he 
says, " that the progeny of the horse, of man, and of most 
domestic animals, shall bear a more striking resemblance to 
the grand-dam or grand-father than to their own immediate 
parents. It is evident that this is more likely where a com- 
mon character has been preserved during successive genera- 
tions, or, in turf language, where the blood has been pre- 
served pure. A practical hint naturally presents itself on the 
extreme importance, therefore, of admitting no accidental 
admixture of bood, where it is peculiarly requisite that it 
should flow in true lineal descent; seeing that its debasing 
consequences are carried through whole generations, and un- 
expectedly appear in a third or fourth." — P. 326. 

Dr. Elliotson, in a note to the fourth edition of his Trans- 
lation of Blumenhach's Physiology, p. 569, observes, "that 
experience teaches us that changes brought about in an ani« 



1PPESDIX HEREDITARY TRAXSHISSOX OF QUALITIES. 353 

final after birth are not in general transmitted to the offspring 
The causes of change in a species must therefore operate, not 
by altering the parents, but by disposing them to produce an 
offspring more or less different from themselves. Such is 
John Hunter's view of the question, and it is certainly con- 
firmed by every fact. I fear that John Hunter has not gene- 
rally the credit of this observation, but the following passage 
hows it to be clearly his : — ' As animals are known to pro- 
uce young which are different from themselves in color, 
orm, and disposition, arising from what may be called the 
unnatural mode of life, it shows this curious power of ac- 
commodation in the animal economy, that although education 
can produce no change in the color, form, or disposition of 
the animal, yet it is capable of producing a principle which 
becomes so natural to the animal, that it shall beget young 
different in color and form ; and so altered in disposition as to 
be more easily trained up to the offices in which they have 
been usually employed ; and having these dispositions suita- 
ble to such changes of form/ — Hunter On the Wolf, Jackal, 
and bog." Dr. Elliotson adds a variety of illustrations, to 
which the reader is referred. 

It is stated by Dr. W. C. Edwards, in the work alluded to 
in Xo. V. of this appendix, that when animals of different 
species are crossed, they produce an animal of an interme- 
diate type, or a mule ; but that when different varieties of the 
same species are mixed, the result is often quite different 
ML Coladon of Geneva, he says, made a very striking experi- 
ment, which bears strongly on this point. He procured a 
great number of white mice, as well as of common brown 
mice, studied their habits, and found means to cause them to 
breed. In his experiments he always put together mice of 
different colors, expecting a mixed race ; but this did not 
occur in one instance. All the young mice were either white 
or brown, but each type was produced always in a state of 
purity. Even in the case of varieties of the same species, 
adds Dr. Edwards, we have an intermediate type or ftiuie ; 
but this is when the varieties differ most from each other, 
when, as in the case of the mice, they approach very nearly^ 
mules are not produced. In both cases we see one common 
principle, namely, that the mother often produces a being ot 
a type different from her own — less so, however, in the lattei 
case. This principle is seen even in the same variety ; foi 
here also the mother, in producing a male, gives birth tc a 
23 30* 



351 ATPENDIX TRANSMISSION OF HEREDITARY QUALITIES. 

beir.g whose type differs, and in some cases differs very much, 
from her own. Now, says Dr. E., the same is observed in 
man. The varieties which differ most strongly, such as the 
Negro and white, when crossed, produce mulattoes ; and 
when varieties more nearly resembling each other are crossed, 
the descendants sometimes resemble one parent, sometimes 
the other, sometimes both. This Dr. Edwards looks upon as 
the cause of the great variety observable in modern nations; 
among which, however, he thinks we can always observa 
specimens of the pure types which have entered into their 
composition. Thus, even if two races having considerable 
resemblance to each other, and in equal numbers, were to 
mix without limitation, the original types would still, in his 
opinion, frequently occur in their descendants. Dr. Edwards 
very ingenuously applies to the elucidation of history, these 
and other principles connected with the physiological charac- 
teristics of races of mankind. For details, I refer to the 
Phrenological Journal, vol. ix. p. 97-108. 

In the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, No. I., there are 
several valuable articles illustrative of hereditary transmission 
in the inferior animals. I select the following examples : — 

" Every one knows that the hen of any bird will lay eggs 
although no male be permitted to come near her; and that 
those eggs are only wanting in the vital principle which the 
impregnation of the male conveys to them. Here, then, we 
see the female able to make an egg, with yolk and white, 
shell and every part, just as it ought to be, so that we might, 
at the first glance, suppose that here, at all events, the fsmale 
has the greatest influence. But see the change which the 
male produces. Put a Bantam cock to a large-sized hen, and 
she will instantly lay a small egg ; the chick will be short in 
leg, have feathers to the foot, and put on the appearance of 
the cock : so that it is a frequent complaint where Bantams 
a.re kept, that they make the hens lay small eggs, and spoil 
the breed. Reverse the case ; put a large dunghill cock to 
Bantam hens, and instantly they will lay larger eggs, and the 
chicks will be good-sized birds, and the Bantam will have 
nearly disappeared. Here, then, are a number of facts known 
to every one, or at least open to be known by every one, 
clearly proving the influence of the male in some animals 
and as I hold it to be an axiom that nature never acts by con 
traries, never outrages the law T clearly fixed in one species, by 
adopting the opposite course in another — therefore, as in the 



APPENDIX HEREB1 TART TRANSMISSION OF QUALITIES. 355 

<-iso of an equilateral triangle on the length of one side being 
given, we can with certainty demonstrate that of the remain- 
ing; so. having found these laws to exist in one race of ani- 
mals, we are entitled to assume that every species is subjected 
to the self-same rules — the whole bearing, in fact, the same 
relation to each other as the radii of a circle. ,, 

Very young hens lay small eggs ; but a breeder of fowls 
will never set these to be hatched, because the animals pro- 
duced would be feeble and imperfectly enveloped. He selects 
the largest and freshest eggs, and endeavours to rear the 
healthiest stock possible. 

" A method of obtaining a greater number of One Sex, at 
the option of the Proprie or, in the Breeding of Live 
Stock." — Extracted from the Quarterly Journal of Agricul- 
ture, No. I. p. 63. 

In the Annales d'x\griculture Franchise, vols. 37 and 38, 
some very interesting experiments are recorded, which have 
lately been made in France, on the Breeding of Live Stock. 
M. Charles Girou de Buzareingues proposed at a meeting of 
the Agricultural Society of Severac, on the 3d of July 1826, 
to divide a (lock of sheep into two equal parts, so that a 
greater number of males or females, at the choice of the pro- 
prietor, should be produced from each of them. Two of the 
members of the Society offered their flocks to become the 
subjects of his experiments, and the results have now been 
communicated, which are in accordance with the author's 
expectations. 

" The first experiment was conducted in the following 
manner : — He recommended very young rams to be put to the 
flock of ewes, from which the proprietor wished the greater 
number of females in their offspring ; and also, that, during 
the season when the rams were with the ewes, they should 
have more abundant pasture than the other ; while, to the 
flock from which the proprietor wished to obtain male lambs 
chiefly, he recommended him to put strong and vigorous rams 
four or five years old. The following tabular view contains 
liie result of this experiment: — 



355 



APPENDIX MARRIAGE AND EDUCATION IN GERMANY 



FLOCK FOR FEMALE LAMBS. , 


FLOCK FOR 


MALE LA 


MBS. 
■X 

Lambs. 


Jlse 
of the Mothers. 


Sex 
of the Lambs. 


Age 

of the Mothers. 


St 
of the j 


Two years 
Three years 
Four years 


Males 
14 
16 
5 


Females 
26 
99 
31 


Two years 
Three years 
Four years 


Males 

7 

15 

S3 


Females 

3 

14 

14 


Total 

Five years and 
older 


85 
18 


76 
8 


Total 

Five years and 
older 


55 

95 


31 

94 


Total 


53 


84 


Total 


80 


55 


N B— There were three twin- 
births in this flock. Tw» rams 
served it, one fifteen months, the 
other nearly two years old. 


N. B.— There were no twin- 
births in this flock. Two strong 
rams, one four, the other five 
years old, served it. 



" The general law, as far as we are able to detect it, seems 
to be, that, when animals are in good condition, plentifully 
supplied with food, and kept from breeding as fast as they 
might do, they are most likely to produce females. Or, in 
other words, when a race of animals is in circumstances fa-, 
vorable for its increase, nature produces the greatest number 
of that sex which, in animals that do not pair, is most efficient 
for increasing the numbers of the race : But if they are in 9 
bad climate or stinted pasturage, or if they have already given 
birth to a numerous offspring, then nature, setting limits t© 
the increase of the race, produces more males than females. 
Yet, perhaps, it may be premature to attempt to deduce am 
law from experiments which have not yet been sufficient! ? 
extended. M. Girou is disposed to ascribe much of the effect 
to the age of the ram, independent of the condition of th* 
ewe." 

No. VHL — Laws relative to Marriage akd Education 
in Germany. 

Text, p. 168. 

a It cannot be altogether foreign to natural history," sa^a 
Mr. Loudon, " to notice the influence of climate, food, and 
political and religious regulations, on the human species ; and 
we are unwilling to leave Germany without saying something 
on so interesting a people as the Germans. It will not be 
denied that man is subject to the same laws as other animals, 
and that his natural or inborn character must depc nd princi- 
pally on the climate and products of the soil where he is 
placed. His factitious or civilised character will as certainly 



APPENDIX MARRIAGE AND EDUCATION IN GERMANY. 357 

depend on his education, taking that word in its most exten- 
sive se.iSe, as including parental care and example, schoiastic 
tuition, religion, and government. In warm fertile countries, 
where nature produces every thing spontaneously, man be- 
bomes inactive, and has naturally few labors and few enjoy- 
ments. In extremely cold and inhospitable climates, the en- 
joyments of man are also few, because the labor necessary 
to overcame natural objects is too great for his powers. It 
would seem, therefore, that intermediate climates are more 
favorable for human happiness than either extremes; but 
whether such are at all times temperate, as those of many 
parts of Italy and Spain, or such as are alternately temperate 
and severe, as those jf the south of Germany and the north 
of France, are the best, may perhaps be doubted. It appears 
that a climate where the winters are severe, has a considera- 
ble influence on the human character, by the necessity which 
it induces of forethought, in the laying up a provision of food 
for winter, and the greater attention and labor that are re- 
quisite in the article of clothing for that season. It is certain, 
on the other hand, that, in climates at all times temperate, the 
nealth, other circumstances being alike, must be better than 
in severe climates, where it is impaired by the artificial atmo- 
sphere of apartments during the winter season-, and constant 
good health must necessarily have a considerable influence 
on the character. Supposing, therefore, all the artificial cir- 
cumstances to be the same in two climates, such as that of the 
south of Germany, and that of Italy or the central parts of 
France, it seems reasonable to conclude that man would at- 
tain to a higher degree of perfection in the latter climates than 
in the former. So much for our theory of the influence of 
soil and climate on man ; and, for farther details, we refer the 
reader to Dr. Falcon ar's work on the subject. 

" Of all the artificial or accidental circumstances which 
influence the character, personal education must be allowed 
to be the greatest, and next, religion and government. Man 
ner of life, occupations, and pursuits, and even amusements 
have an important influence. To do more than premise these 
matters, would be unsuitable to this Magazine ; but what has 
been said became necessary as an introduction to what is ta 
follow. 

" Applying the above theory to the three states of Germany 
which we have passed through, Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and 
Baden, the climate and soil of these states seem favorable in 



35R APPENDIX MARRIAGE AND EDUCATION IN GERMANY, 

the second degree; education, to a certain extent, is there 
universal ; religion is, on the whole, more simple than in some 
other countries ; and the laws and governments seem, at least, 
equal, in constitutional merits and impartial administration, 
to those of any people in Europe. The manner of life, or 
occupation, is chiefly agricultural ; which, though not favor- 
able to luxury or refinement, seems, without doubt, for the 
great mass of the people, the happiest mode of existence- 
Local and personal attachments are universally felt to be 
essential sources of happiness : and in noway can this feeling 
be gratified so easily and effectually as by the possession of 
land. In the three countries named, the great majority of the 
population are occupiers, in perpetuity, of a portion of the 
soil, either as absolute proprietors or as perpetual renters. 
This state of things is far from being favorable to what is 
called making money ; but it is highly favorable to health and 
contentment. It is a great deal for a poor man to have 
something which he can call his own; something on which 
he can bestow labor, and from which he can, in consequence, 
extract enjoyment. The absolute necessities of life are few, 
and derived directly from the soil ; the laboring man, there- 
fore, who has a house and a few roods of land, is certain of a 
home and food ; he increases the interest of his home by a 
wife ; and parental care and solicitude, with connubial and 
filial attachment, fill up the measure of his happiness. These 
are the essential purposes and enjoyments of life, which na- 
ture intended for all men ; which the poor man can enjoy as 
well as the rich; and for which no other enjoyment, either 
of the rich or the poor, the wise or the learned, can entirely 
compensate. In no part of Europe have we seen, or thought 
we have seen, these enjoyments so generally diffused as in 
the countries we have recently passed through, and more 
especially Wurtemberg. We entered on these countries, 
expecting to find the people not much better off than in 
France : but we could not resist the conviction produced by 
constant observation, and the result of various inquiry, that 
comfort and happiness exist to a much greater degree among 
the laboring classes of society in the south of Germany, than 
they do in Britain. The people, at first sight, have a milder 
and more civilised aspect. The dress of the country laborers, 
male and female, does not consist of such fine materials as in 
England; but one part of the dress is of a quality consistent 
with the others, and the whole is in a superior style, compared 



• PPFFDIX MAUHIAGK AND EDUCATION IK GERMAN T. 359 

with the dress of the other classes of society. There is no 
such thing, in this part of Germany, as a man or woman in 
rags, or with a coat or gown of the best quality, and the hat 
or stockings in tatters, as is frequently the case, not only 
among laborers, but even among mechanics, in England. In 
short, the dress in Germany is in much better keeping. Both 
men and women of the laboring class here are more intelli- 
gent in their aspect, much more civil and polite on a first 
acquaintance, and much better furnished with conversation 
than the British laborers. What struck us particularly were, 
the great rarity of exceptions to this general description, the 
general uniformity of manner and character throughout the 
whole country, and the total absence of public beggars. On 
inquiry, we found that there were few or no poor supported 
publicly, though every parish is obliged to support its poor 
when unable to work; and also, that there were few people 
in prison, either for debt or for crime of any kind. 

" This state of things more particularly applies to Wurtem- 
berg ; and the causes, we think, may be very easily traced. 
The first and principal cause is a law respecting schools, 
which has existed more or less, in the states of the south of 
Germany for above a century, but which has been greatly 
improved within the last thirty years. By this law, parents 
are compelled to send their children to school, from the agie 
of six to fourteen years, where they must be taught reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, but where they may acquire as much 
additional instruction in other branches as their parents choose 
to pay for. To many of the schools of Bavaria large gardens 
are attached, in which the boys are taught the principal ope- 
rations of agriculture and gardening in their hours of play; 
and, in all the schools of the three states, the girls, in addition 
to the same instruction as the boys, are taught knitting, sew- 
ing, embroidery, &c. It is the duty of the police and pried 
(which may be considered equivalent to our parish vestries) 
of each commune or parish, to see that the law is duly exe- 
cuted, the children sent regularly, and instructed daily. If 
the parents are partially or wholly unable to pay for theii 
children, the commune makes up the deficiency. Religion is 
taught by the priest of the village or hamlet: and where, as 
is frequently the case in Wurtemberg, there are two or thre« 
religions in one parish, each child is taught by the priest oi 
its parents ; all of which priests are, from their office, members 
of the committee or vestry of the commune. The priest oi 



360 APPENDIX MARRIAGE AND EDUCATION IN GERMAJTf 

priests of the parish have the regular inspection of the school 
master, and are required by the government to see that he 
does his duty ; while each priest, at the same time, sees that 
the children of his flock attend regularly. After the child has 
been the appointed number of years at school, it receives from 
the schoolmaster, and the priest of the religion to which it 
belongs, a certificate, without which it cannot procure employ- 
ment. To employ any person under twenty-one, without 
such a certificate, is illegal, and punished by a fixed fine, as 
is almost every other ofFence in this part of Germany ; and 
the fines are never remitted, which makes punishment always 
certain. The schoolmaster is paid much in the same way as 
in Scotland ; by a house, a garden, and sometimes a field, 
and by a small salary from the parish ; and by fixed rates foi 
the children. 

" A second law, which is coeval with the school law, ren- 
ders it illegal for any young man to marry before he is 
twenty-five, or any young woman before she is eighteen ,* and 
a young man, at whatever age he wishes to marry, must 
show to the police and the priest of the commune where he 
resides, that he is able, and has the prospect, to provide for a 
wife and family, 

" There are minor cases, but these two laws, and the ge- 
neral possession of land both by laborers and tradesmen, are 
the chief. Amongst the minor causes are the general sim- 
plicity of their forms of religion, and universal toleration ; 
even the Catholic faith in Wurtemberg is unattended with 
the ceremony and spectacle with which it is exhibited in 
various parts of Germany and France. The equal footing on 
which the different religions are placed, is also favorable to 
liberality of sentiment and good neighborhood. That parti- 
cular mildness of feature and character, so different from 
what is met with in the laboring classes in England, is no 
doubt partly owing to the greater proportion of vegetables and 
fruits which enter into the general diet of the population ; the 
almost total abstinence from strong liquors or spirits, the ge- 
neral drink being wine ; and, perhaps, to the almost unremit- 
ted smoking of tobacco from morning to night" — Magazint 
qf Natural History. 



APPENDIX. DEATH. 361 

No. IX.— Death. 
Text, p. 199. 

The fact of a decrease in the mortality of England is 
strikingly supported by the following extract from the Scots- 
man of 16th April 1828. It is well known that this paper is 
edited by Mr. Charles Maclaren, a gentleman whose extensive 
information, and scrupulous regard to accuracy and truth, 
stamp the highest value on his statements of fact; and whose 
profound and comprehensive intellect warrants a well- 
grounded reliance on his philosophical conclusions. 

" Diminished Mortality in England. — The diminu- 
tion of the annual mortality in England amidst an alleged 
increase of crime, misery, and pauperism, is an extraordinary 
and startling fact, which merits a more careful investigation 
than it has received. We have not time to go deeply into 
the subject ; but we shall offer a remark or two on the ques- 
tion, how the apparent annual mortality is affected by the 
^introduction of the cow-pox, and the stationary or progressive 
state of the population. In 1780, according to Mr. Rickman, 
the annual deaths were 1 in 40, or one-fortieth part of the 
population died every year; in 1821, the proportion was 1 
in 58. It follows, that, out of any given number of persons, 
1,000 or 10,000, scarcely more than two deaths take place 
now for three that took place in 1780, or the mortality has 
diminished 45 per cent. The parochial registers of burials in 
England, from which this statement is derived, are known to 
be incorrect ; but as they continue to be kept without altera- 
tion in the same way, the errors of one year are justly con- 
ceived to balance those of another, and they thus afford com- 
parative results, upon which considerable reliance may be 
placed. 

" A community is made up of persons of many various 
ages, among whom the law of mortality is very different. 
Thus according to the Swedish tables, the deaths among 
children from the moment of birth up to 10 years of age. ase 
1 in 22 per annum; from 10 to 20, the deaths are only 1 in 
185. Among the old, again, mortality is of course great. 
From 70 to 80, the deaths are 1 in 9; from 80 to 90 they are 
1 in 4. Now, a community like that of New York or Ohio, 
where marriages are made early and the births are numerous, 
necessarily contains a large proportion of young persons, 
among whom the proportional mortality is low, and a smai' 
31 



362 APPENDIX. DEATH. 

proportion of the old, who die off rapidly. A community in 
which the births are numerous, is like a regiment receiving 
a vast number of young and healthy recruits, and in which, 
of course, as a whole, the annual deaths will be few compared 
. with those in another regiment chiefly filled with veterans, 
though, among the persons at any particular age, such as 20, 
40, or 50, the mortality will be as great in the one regiment 
as in the other. It may thus happen, that the annual mor- 
tality among 1,000 persons in Ohio may be considerably less 
than in France, while the Expectation of Life, or the chance 
which an individual has to reach to a certain age, may be no 
greater in the former country than in the latter; and hence 
we see that a diminution in the rate of mortality is not a 
certain proof of an increase in the value of life, or an improve- 
ment in the condition of the people. 

" But the effect produced by an increased number of births 
is less than might be imagined, owing to the very great mor- 
tality among infants in the first year of their age. Not hav- 
ing time for the calculations necessary to get at the precise 
result, which are pretty complex, we avail ourselves of some 
statements given by Mr. Milne in his work on Annuities. 
Taking the Swedish tables as a basis, and supposing the law 
of mortality to remain the same for each period of life, he has 
compared the proportional number of deaths in a population 
which is stationary, and in one which increases 15 per cent. 
in 20 years. The result is, that when the mortality in the 
stationary society is one in 36.13, that in the progressive so- 
ciety is one in 37.33, a difference equal to 3^ per cent. Now, 
the population of England and Wales increased 34.3 pei cent, 
in the 20 years ending in 1821, but in the interval from 1811 
to 1821, the rate was equivalent to 39 J per cent, upon 20 
years; and the apparent diminution of mortality arising from 
this circumstance must of course have been about 8^ per cent 
We are assuming, however, that the population was absolutely 
stationary at 17S0, which was not the case. According to Mr. 
Milne (p. 437,) the average annual increase in the five years 
ending 1784, was 1 in 55; in the ten years ending 1821, accord- 
ing to the census, it was 1 in 60. Deducting, then, the propor- 
tional part corresponding to the former, which is 3J, there re- 
mains 5£. If Mr. Milne's tables,* therefore, are correct, we may 
infer that the progressive state of the population causes a di- 
minution of b^ per cent, in the annual mortality — a diminu- 
tion which is only apparent, because it arises entirely from tb« 



APPENDIX. DEATH. 303 

£reat proportion of births, and is not acccmpt nicd with any 
real increase in the value of human life. 

•' A much greater change — not apparent hut real — was 
produced by the introduction of vaccination in 179S. It was 
computed, that, in 1795, when the population of the British 
Isles was 15,000.000, the deaths produced by the small-pox 
amounted to 36,000, or nearly 1 1 per cent, of the whole an- 
nual mortality. (See article Vaccination in the Supplement 
to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, p. 713.) IVow, since not 
more than one case in 330 terminates fatally under the c. w- 
pox system, either directly by primary infection, or from the 
other diseases supervening ; the whole of the young persons 
destroyed by the small-pox might be considered as saved, 
were vaccination universal, and always properly performed. 
This is not precisely the case, but one or one and a half per 
cent, will cover the deficiencies ; and we may therefore con- 
clude, that vaccination has diminished the annual mortality 
fully nine per cent. After we had arrived at this conclusion 
by the process described, we found it confirmed by the autho- 
rity of Mr. Milne, who estimates, in a note to one of his 
tables, that the mortality of 1 in 40 would be diminished to 
1 in 43-5, by exterminating the small-pox. Now, this is 
almost precisely 9 per cent. 

u We stated, that the diminution of the annual mortality 
between 1790 and 1821 was 45 per cent., according to Mr. 
Rickman. If we deduct from this 9 per cent, for the effect 
of vaccination, and 5 per cent, as only apparent, resulting 
from the increasing proportion of births — 31 per cent, remains, 
which, we apprehend, can only be accounted for by an im- 
provement in the habits, morals, and physical condition of 
the people. Independently, then, of the two causes alluded 
to, the value of human life since 1780 has increased in a 
ratio which would diminish the annual mortality from 1 in 
40 to 1 in 52^ — a fact which is indisputably of great import- 
ance, and worth volumes of declamation in illustrating th 
rue situation of the laboring classes. We have founded ou 
onclusions on data derived entirely from English returns, 
but there is no doubt that it applies equally to Scotland. It 
is consoling to find, from this very unexceptionable species of 
evidence, that though there is much privation and suffering 
in the country, the situation of the people has been, on the 
whole, progressively improving during the last forty years. 
But Low much greater would the advance have been, had 



S64 APPENDIX. DEATH. 

they been less taxed, and better treated ! and how much room 
is there still for future amelioration, by spreading instruction, 
amending our laws, lessening the temptations to crime, and 
improving the means of correction and reform ! In the mean 
time, it ought to be some encouragement to philanthiopy to 
learn that it has not to struggle against invincible obstacles, 
and that even when the prospect was least cheering to the 
eye, its efforts were silently benefitting society." 

Extract from Edinburgh Advertiser, 13th January 1829 
" The following comparative table of the average duration of 
life at Geneva, during the last 260 years, is very remarkable. 
The growing improvement affords a striking proof of the be- 
nefits resulting from the progress of civilisation and the useful 
arts. 









Average 


duration. 








Years. 


Months 


From 1560 to 1600, 


# 


, 


18 


5 


1601 to 1700, 


. 


, 


23 


5 


1701 to 1760, 


. 


. 


32 




1761 to 1800, 


, 


# 


33 


7 


1801 to 1814, 


. 


. 


38 


6 


1815 to 1826, 


. 


• 


38 


10 



It has been mentioned to me, that the late Dr. Monro, in 
his anatomical lectures, stated, that, as far as he could ob- 
serve, the human body, as a machine, was perfect — that it bore 
within itself no marks by which we could possibly predict its 
decay — that it was apparently calculated to go on for ever— 
and that we learned only by experience that it would not do 
so ; and some persons have conceived this to be an authority 
against the doctrine maintained in Chap. III. Sect. 2, that death 
is apparently inherent in organization. In answer, I beg to 
observe, that if we were to look at the sun only for one mo- 
ment of time, say at noon, no circumstance in its appearance 
would indicate that it had ever risen, or that it would ever set; 
Vit if we had traced its progress from the horizon to the me- 
idian, and down again till the long shadows of evening pre* 
Tailed, we should have ample grounds for inferring, that, if 
the same causes that had produced these changes continued 
to operate, it would undoubtedly at length disappear. In the 
same way, if we were to confine our observations on the hu- 
man body, t3 a mere point of time, it is certain that, from the 
appearances of that moment, we could not infer that it had 
grown up by gradual increase, or that ii would decay; but 



1PPENDIX. EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION. 365 

this is the case only because our faculties are not fitted 
to penetrate into the essential nature and dependences of 
things. Any man who had seen the body decrease in old 
age, could, without hesitation, predicate, that, if the same 
causes which had produced that effect went on operating, 
dissolution would at last inevitably occur; and, if his Causality 
were well developed, he would not hesitate to say that a 
cause of the decrease and dissolution must exist, although he 
could not tell by examining the body what it was. By ana- 
lysing alcohol, no person could predicate, independently of 
experience, that it would produce intoxication ; and, never- 
theless, there must be a cause in the constitution of the alco- 
hol, in that of the body, and in the relationship between them, 
why it produces this effect. The notion, therefore, of Dr. 
Monro, does not prove that death is not an essential law of 
organization, but only that the human faculties are not able, 
by dissection, to discover that the cause of it is inherent in 
the bodily constitution itself. It does not follow, however, 
that this inference may not be legitimately drawn from phe- 
nomena collected from the whole period of corporeal exist- 
ence. 

No. X. — Edinburgh Philosophical Association. 

Text, p. 207. 

The history of this Association is thus stated in the address 
of its present Directors to the public : — 

" Towards the close of a course of Lectures on Phrenology, 
by Mr. George Combe, in the Clyde Street Hall, in the Sum- 
mer of 1832, it was proposed by several individuals who at- 
tended them, that an attempt should be made to form arrange- 
ments with properly qualified persons to deliver a course of 
Lectures on Geology, Chemistry, and Phrenology, during the 
winter 1832-1833, provided the public came forward with 
efficient support. Accordingly, a printed proposal was cir- 
culated, in which the interest taken by the public was suffi- 
ciently evinced by the fact, that, in the course of two days, no 
less than sixty individuals subscribed for tickets, and the de- 
mand increasing, arrangements were made with Mr. Combe 
to lecture on Phrenology on Tuesday and Friday of each 
week, during the winter, and with Dr. Murray to lecture on 
Chemistry on Monday, and Geology on Thursday. By the 
29th October 1832, the number of tickets subscribed for was 
as follows: — For Geology 95, for chemistry 72, for Phreno 
31* 



366 APPENDIX. EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION 

ogy 84 — making a total of 251 tickets. A general meeting 
of the subscribers was then held, when a Committee of their 
number was appointed to watch over the interests of the rising 
Association. It was agreed that sets of tickets for all the 
courses should be issued for £1, Is. and single tickets at a 
proportionally low rate ; as also that visitors should be ad- 
mitted to any single lecture on payment of sixpence. So 
uccessful were the labors of the Directors, that, so early as 
he 28th of November 1833, only three weeks after the leo 
ures commenced, it was found necessary to limit the number 
of visitors. 

" The winter lectures were attended by crowded audiences, 
who throughout evinced the deepest interest in the subjects 
of the course. At their conclusion, the Directors made their 
first report to the public. The total number of tickets sold 
for the geological course was 241, visitors admitted 142, 
making the entire proceeds £72, 156.; for the Chemical course, 
229 tickets were sold, and 387 visitors admitted, the entire 
proceeds amounting to £99, 13?. 6d.; and for the Phrenolo- 
gical course, 225 tickets were sold, and 700 visitors admitted, 
the proceeds being £107, 8i. 6d.\ making a total of £279, 17s. 
received ; and the expenses amounting to £222, 8s. 9d., a 
free balance was left of £57, 8s. 3d., at the credit of the As- 
sociation. 

" Towards the close of the winter, the Directors took into 
consideration the expediency of having a course of lectures 
on some interesting branch of Natural Science during the 
summer months. A communication was accordingly made 
to Professor Drummond of Belfast, who having agreed to 
lecture under the auspices of the Association, arrangements 
were entered into for his delivering a course on Botany. 
These lectures commenced on the 1st of May. The Direc- 
tors had every reason to be satisfied with the result; 19 J 
tickets were sold at 7s. 6d., and 162 visiters admitted, the 
proceeds of the lectures amounting to £75. There was also 
given during the summer, a short course of lectures on Edu- 
cation, by Mr. Combe, the proceeds of which, with an addi- 
tional donation of £21, were, with Mr. Combe's wonted libe- 
rality, presented to the Association. 

" The lectures delivered under the auspices of the Asso- 
ciation having been hitherto attended with the most unqua 
lined success, the Directors proceeded immediately to make 
iLc necessary arrangements for a course during the winter 



jiri'Exnix. — i;i)ixnvui,rf philosophical association-. 307 

1833-1834. Mr. George Lees, A. M. of the Scottish Nj.l|d 
^nd Military Academy, agreed to lectuie on Natural Philo- 
sophy, Rev. Thomas Gray on Astronomy, and Mr. W. A. F. 
Browne, surgeon, on Physiology and Zoology; and Mr. Combe 
kindly agreed to open the course by repeating his lectures on 
Popular Education. The price of tickets to the whole three 
courses was fixed at £1; and a syllabus was circulated to the 
public. 

" On the 28th October, the winter session was opened by 
fir. Combe, under the most cheering prospects of success. 
Up to the 3. st December 1833, the number of tickets sold to 
the lectures on Natural Philosophy was 239, visitors admit- 
ted 16-4, proceeds £101, 0s. 3d.; to the class on Astronomy 
298 tickets sold, visitors admitted 101, proceeds £105, 19s. 
6d.; to the Physiological class 293 tickets sold, visitors ad- 
mitted 155, proceeds £89, lis. 6c?., making a total of 830 
tickets sold, and 420 visitors admitted, the proceeds arising 
from which, with £8, I Off, received from 340 visitors to Mr. 
Combed Lectures on Education, made the total receipts 
£305, Is. 3J. The charges amounted to £266, Ste. I0d., and 
a surplus of £38, 18*. od. was thus left in the hands of the 
Association. From the commencement of the Association 
to 31st December 1833, the total number of tickets sold to all 
the lectures amounted to 1788, visitors admitted 2777; the 
total funds received, £720, 6s. 6d., and the expenditure 
£609, 6s. 6d.\ leaving a total surplus of £111 in favor of the 
Association. L'p to the close of the different courses delivered 
during this winter, the attendance continued most numerous, 
and the marked attention of the audience, and strong interest 
evinced in the experiments and demonstrations of the different 
lecturers, showed the increasing demand of the public for that 
Fpecies of instruction which it was the object of the Associa- 
tion to afford. 

" During the last winter, a course of lectures was delivered 
on Phrenology by Mr. Combe, a second course on Natural 
Philosophy by Mr. George Lees, and a course on the Laws 
of Animal Economy by Dr. Allen Thomson — the price of an 
entire set of tickets to the whole lectures being One Guinea, 
and a proportionally small sum for each separate course. The 
success of these courses was equal to that of any former session- 
The number of tickets sold for the course on Phrenology was 
224, visitors admitted 1114; proceeds £126, 2s. Id.; for the 
course on Natural Philosophy 210 tickets were sold, and 16 



3{)8 Alr*i,NDIX. EDINBURGH PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION. 

■visitors admitted, proceeds £74, 7.9. 4c?.; and for the course on 
Animal Economy, 197 tickets were sold, and $34 visitors ad- 
mitted, proceeds £73, 16s. 7d.; making altogether 631 tickets 
sold, and 16C9 visitors admitted, which, with the proceeds of 
six lectures on Sidereal Astronomy, contributed by the Rev. J 
P. Nichol, yielded a total sum of £290, 12*., as the entire 
proceeds of the session, and a clear balance in money and 
stock in the hands of the Association of £208, 17s. 2c?." 

To give greater permanency to the Institution, a body of 
laws was passed at a General Meeting of the Association on 
the 14th of August last. Its principal features are, 

1. That the Association shall consist of persons elected by 
by ballot, who, upon payment of One Guinea per annum, 
shall be entitled to admission to all lectures delivered under 
the auspices of the Association ; shall have a right to procure 
admission for members of their own families at a cheaper 
rate than the general public ; shall have a voice in passing or 
altering all laws, and have a vote in the election of Office- 
bearers. 

2. The Association shall be under the management of a 
President, twelve Extraordinary, and twenty-four Ordinary 
Directors, elected by the members at a General Meeting held 
for that purpose. Twenty-one of these must retire annually, 
of whom eight are Ordinary Directors, who shall be ineligible 
for one year. 

3. It shall be the duty of the Directors (whose services are 
to be gratuitous) to provide places for meeting ; to determine 
subjects upon which lectures shall be given ; to engage lec- 
turers; to fix the amount of their remuneration, and the price 
at which tickets shall be sold to the public; to determine ap- 
plications from individuals wishing to become members of the 
Association ; to pay all necessary expenses -, and in general 
to do whatever they may think calculated to promote the 
interests of the Association. 

4. Individuals shall be allowed to purchase tickets for ad- 
mission to one or more of the lectures without becoming 
members. 

5. The funds shall be deposited in a chartered bank in 
name of the two Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer, and Secre- 
tary, whose signatures must be adhibited to all drafts upon 
the account. 

Since the institution of the Association in 1832 to the 
close of last session, instruction was afforded to 3000 of the 



APPENDIX. INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAWS. 369 

Inhabitants of Edinburgh, in some of the most important 
branches of science. The present session only commenced 
about ten days ago, 2 .d there have already been admitted no 
fewer than 440 members, among whom are to be found per- 
sons of every trade, profession, and rank in life. Of single 
tickets, there have already been sold upwards of 300 ; and 
500 visitors have been admitted in the course of the five first 
Lectures. 

It is expected that the gross revenue for this season will 
exceed £100, which will not only aiTord a fair remuneration 
to the lecturers, but yield a handsome surplus to the funds 
of the Association. 

Nov. 12, 1835. 

No. XL — Infringement of Moral Laws. 
Text, p. 215. 

The deterioration of the operative classes of Britain, which 
I attribute to excessive labor, joined with great alternations 
of high and low wages, and occasionally with absolute idle- 
ness and want, is illustrated by the following extract from a 
Report on Emigration, by a Committee of the House of Com- 
mons : 

" Joseph Foster, a weaver, and one of the deputies of an 
emigration society in Glasgow, states that the labor is all paid 
by the piece ; the hours of working are various, sometimes 
eighteen or nineteen out of twenty-four, and even all night 
once or twice a- week; and that the wages made by such 
labor, after deducting the necessary expenses, will not amount 
to more than 4s. 6c?. to 7s. per week, some kinds of work 
paying better than others. "When he commenced as a weaver, 
from 1800 to 1805, the same amount of labor that now yields 
4s. 6d. or 5s. would have yielded 20s. There are about 
11,000 hand-looms going in Glasgow and its suburbs, some 
of which are worked by boys and girls, and he estimates the 
average net earnings of each hand-weaver at 5s. 6d. The 
principal subsistence of the weavers is oatmeal and potatoes, 
with occasionally some salt herrings. 

" Major Thomas Moodie, who had made careful inquiries 
into the state of the poor at Manchester, states that the calico 
and other light plain work at Bolton and Blackburn yields 
the weaver from 4s. to 5*. per week, by fourteen hoars of 
daily labor. In the power-loom work, one man attends two 
looms, and earns from 7s. 6c?. to 14s. per week, according to 
24 



570 APPENDIX. INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAWS. 

the fineness of the work. He understood that, during the last 
ten years, weavers' wages had fallen on an average about 15* 
per week. 

" Mr. Thomas Hutton, manufacturer, Carlisle, states that 
there are in Carlisle and its neighbourhood about 5500 fami- 
lies, or from 18,000 to 20,000 persons dependent on weaving: 
They are all hand-weavers, and are now in a very depressed 
state, in consequence of the increase of power-loom and fac 
tory weaving* in Manchester and elsewhere. Taking fifteen 
of his men, he finds that five of them, who are employed on 
the best work, had earned 5s. 6d. per week for the preceding 
month, deducting the necessary expenses of loom- rent, can- 
dles, tackling, &c; the next five, who are upon work of the 
second quality, earned 3s. lid.; and the third five earned 
3s. 7%d. per week. They work from fourteen to sixteen 
hours a-day, and live chiefly on potatoes, butter-milk and 
herrings. 

" Mr. W. H. Hyett, Secretary to the Charity Committee 
in London, gives a detailed statement, to show, that, in the 
Hundred of Blackburn, comprising a population of 150,000 
persons, 90,000 were out of employment in 1826! In April 
last, when he gave his evidence before the Committee, these 
persons had generally found work again, but at very low 
wages. They were laboring from twelve to fourteen hours 
a-day, and gaining from 4=s. to 5s. 6d. per week. 

Ci Extract from Lord Advocate Sir William Roe's Speech in 
the House of Commons, llth March 1828, on the addi- 
tional Circuit Court of Glasgow. 

" The Lord advocate, in rising to move for leave to bring 
in a bill to ' authorize an additional Court of Justiciary to be 
Held at Glasgow, and to facilitate criminal trial in Scotland/ 
said he did not anticipate any opposition to the motion. A 
great deal had been said of the progress of crime in this 
country, but he was sorry to say crime in Scotland had kept 
pace with that increase. A return had been made of the 
number of criminal commitments in each year, so far back 
as the year 1805. In that year x the number of criminal com- 
mitments for all Scotland amounted only to 85. In 1809, it 

* In what is called factory -weaving, an improved species of hand* 
k)om is employed, in which the dressing and preparation of the web 
is effected by machinery, and the weaver mereljr sits and drivei tb# 
•hut tie. 



APPENDIX. INFRINGEMENT OF MORAL LAWS. 371 

had risen to between 200 and 300; in 1819-20, it had in- 
creased to 400; and, by the last return, it appeared that, in 
1827, 661 persons had been committed for trial. He was 
inclined to think that the great increase of crime, particularly 
in the west of Scotland, was attributable, in no small degree, 
to the number of Irish who daily and weekly arrived there. 
He did not mean to say that the Irish themselves were in the 
habit of committing more crime than their neighbors; but he 
was of opinion that their numbers tended to reduce the price 
of labor, and that an increase of crime was the consequence. 
Another cause was the great disregard manifested b}r parents 
for the moral education of their children. Formerly the 
people of Scotland were remarkable for the paternal care 
which they took of their offspring. That had ceased in many 
instances to be the case. Not only were parents found who 
did not pay attention to the welfare of their children, but who 
were actually parties to their criminal pursuits, and partici- 
pated in the fruits of their unlawful proceedings. When 
crime was thus on the increase, it was necessary to take 
measures for its speedy punishment. The great city of Glas- 
gow, which contained 150,000 inhabitants, and to which his 
proposed measure was meant chiefly to apply, stood greatly 
in need of some additional jurisdiction. This would appear 
evident, when it was considered that the court met there for 
the trial of capital offences, had also to act in the districts of 
Renfrew, Lanark, and Dumbarton. In 1812, the whole 
number of criminals tried in Glasgow was only 31 ; in 1820, 
it was 83; in 1823, it was 85; and in 1827, 211.— The 
learned lord concluded by moving for leave to bring in a bill 
to authorize an additional circuit court of justiciary to be held 
At Glasgow and to facilitate criminal trial in Scotland." 



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